Prasad Shrikant Purohit

Lt. Col. Shrikant Prasad Purohit is an Indian Army officer who is accused of charges of terrorism, as the suspected chief architect of the 2007 Samjhauta Express bombings. The attack took place on the Samjhauta Express, a train that connects Lahore, Pakistan with Delhi, the capital of India. 68 people died in the blast; most were Pakistani civilians but there were also some Indian security personnel and civilians. The attack was a turning point in India-Pakistan relations, and one of the many terrorist incidents that have affected relations between the two.
A lieutenant-colonel in military intelligence, Purohit he was arrested in November 2008 by the Mumbai Anti-terrorism squad on alleged involvement in terrorist attacks across Western India. He was later accused of also having a hand in 2007 Samjhauta Express bombings until the Indian and U.S. governments announced that Pakistani infiltrators were more likely suspects, a view still supported by the U.S. government. Purohit was allegedly named as a member of Abhinav Bharat, a Hindu right-wing outfit, in the preliminary confessions of Swami Aseemanand, a Hindu nationalist figure. However, Aseemanand later stated that he made the confessions under duress. During an army's Court of Inquiry as many as 59 witnesses testified that Lt Col Purohit was doing his job (of gathering intelligence inputs) by infiltrating extremist organizations.
Personal life and career
Purohit belongs to middle-class Marathi Brahmin family. He was born in Pune and got his education from the Abhinav Vidyalaya and Garware College there. In 1994, Purohit was commissioned into the Maratha Light Infantry after passing out of the Officers' Training Academy at Chennai. He was serving in Jammu and Kashmir when he fell ill and was medically downgraded. At that time he was shifted to the Military Intelligence. Between 2002 and early 2005, Purohit was part of counter-terrorism operations in Jammu and Kashmir as part of MI-25 or the Intelligence Field Security Unit.
Charges
In November, 2008 he said to Pune's Shivajinagar court that the ATS had threatened to eliminate him during his interrogation in their custody. In January 2010, Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik accused India of not pursuing the investigation of the Samjhauta Express bombings with enough vigour, and of refusing to divulge details about Purohit's role. Malik alleged that Purohit had hired Pakistani extremists to carry out the bombing.
Purohit claimed that he infiltrated Abhinav Bharat and that during his trial some witnesses were not examined. This was corroborated by as many as 59 witnesses who testified that Lt Col Purohit was doing his job (of gathering intelligence inputs) by infiltrating extremist organizations.<ref name="Lt Colonel Purohit: Did the Army sell short an effective officer?"/>

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