Malegaon blast: Supreme Court modifies Purohit's bail condition

Purohit was granted bail subject to several conditions by the apex court yesterday after he had spent eight years and eight months in jail in the case.

A bench of Justices R K Agrawal and Abhay Mohan Sapre modified the order after Purohit, through his counsel, sought changes to the condition that he has to furnish personal security of Rs one lakh along with two solvent sureties.

He pleaded that instead of solvent sureties, it should be modified to cash securities.

To this, the bench said in its modified order that "on his furnishing personal security in the sum of Rs one lakh with two cash sureties, each of the like amount, to the satisfaction of the trial court, and the cash sureties will be replaced by solvent sureties within 15 days."

Among other conditions imposed by apex court while granting bail to Purohit was that he would not leave India without prior permission of court and not directly or indirectly make any inducement to any witnesses.

The apex court had yesterday granted bail to him saying it cannot deny the relief merely because "sentiments of community was against him".

Six people were killed in a bomb blast on September 29, 2008, at Malegaon, a communally-sensitive textile town in Nasik district of north Maharashtra.

Purohit had moved the apex court challenging the Bombay High Court's order dismissing his bail plea.

A special MCOCA court had earlier ruled that the ATS had wrongly applied this law against Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, Purohit and nine others.