Upadhyay may walk out on bail after 8 years today

Pune: Major Ramesh Upadhyay (retd), one of the accused in the 2008 Malegaon blasts case who was granted bail by the Bombay high court on Tuesday, is expected to walk out from Taloja jail in Mumbai on Thursday.

Upadhyay, who has been in jail for more than eight years, was granted bail on the grounds of parity after Supreme Court allowed bail to another accused, Lt Col Shrikant Purohit, last month.

Speaking to TOI, Upadhyay’s son, Vishal, said, “All the legal formalities relating to the bail papers and furnishing of the Rs 1 lakh personal release bond with sureties were being done on Wednesday and we hope that my father will walk out of jail tomorrow (Thursday).”

Upadhyay, who allegedly had links with Abhinav Bharat group, retired from the Army in 1998 and had since settled at Magarpatta in Hadapsar.

“A native of Ballia in Uttar Pradesh, my father completed his military training at Indian Military Academy (IMA) in Dehradun. He was commissioned into the force in 1985. In 1998, he took voluntarily retirement from the force,” Vishal said.

He was arrested by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad in 2008 for his alleged role in the conspiracy relating to the Malegoan blasts.

“It has been eight years and 11 months since he is in jail. The agencies (ATS and NIA) have failed to produce substantial evidence against my father. Unfortunately, he has languished in jail for this long a period,” Vishal, who is pursuing his law studies, said.

The Supreme Court granted bail to Purohit last month. Purohit was granted bail by SC after he convinced the apex court that "he was acting as an Army mole and was not involved in terrorist activity."

Seven people were killed on September 29, 2008 in Malegaon, a communally-sensitive textile town in Nashik district of north Maharashtra.