The Psychotic Patriotism of Purohit

How the Malegaon blast prime accused, Lt Col Prasad Prohit, degenerated from being a top military officer to a dreaded terrorist

Sometime circa 2003, while sitting with his colleagues during a casual chat in the army mess abutting the military intelligence office in Avantipora district of Kashmir, an army man, much decorated for his work in the Valley by then, said: "To serve the nation, one needs to go beyond the call of duty." Little did his colleagues know at that time that the seemingly innocuous statement probably hid in it nascent signs of great tragedy to come.Merely a few years later the officer was arrested by the anti-terrorism squad (ATS) of Maharashtra Police for masterminding the 29 September 2008 Malegaon blasts that killed six and injured at least 100.

STARTING WITH SHIVAJI

Born to a banker father in Pune in 1972, Purohit grew up reading nationalistic Marathi literature. Books eulogising Shivaji's war against the Mughal Empire and his various triumphs had made a deep impression on the adolescent's psyche.

They had managed to influence him to the extent that even as a school boy the only profession he deemed fit for himself was serving in the armed forces. As a relative of Purohit, not wishing to be identified, put it: "Patriotism was running in his veins since childhood. He fancied himself to be the saviour of the nation."Purohit's moves towards his goal were determined and speedy.

While studying in the Abhinav Marathi Medium School in Pune, Purohit joined the National Cadet Corps (NCC) and did exceedingly well. So much so that not only did he rise up the ladders in the NCC quickly but was even selected to represent Maharashtra in the Republic Day parade in Delhi when he was studying B Com in BMCC College in Pune.

AN EXEMPLARY CADET, A DEVOTED HUBBY

Says his teacher for marketing in BMCC College, Prof G K Bengale, "Purohit was very sincere and hardworking. He was under my guidance as an NCC cadet. He was so good that within months of him coming under my tutelage, I had promoted him as an under-officer. He was very meticulous and smart. Give him any task and he would do it to perfection. He was aggressive and had leadership qualities. He was always thinking, coming up with ideas and taking initiatives. That was what set him apart from others. I used to give his example to my students later."

The "very well-behaved and no-nonsense" boy as detailed by his teacher was also an excellent sportsman. A champion swimmer, Purohit has twice traversed the sea from Dharamtar, near Alibaug, to Mumbai. Says his NCC trainer Maj. Leela-Mali Joshi, who remembers Purohit as a cute boy who never indulged in groupism or politics, "What made Purohit excel in everything that he did was his dedication and unidirectional devotion to his goals. He did everything with a sort of passion. His excellence in sports and other extra-curricular activities were also driven by his larger goal of joining the army one day. He was also mad about fitness and would work out every day for considerable time.

"It was this devotion, dedication and commitment that Purohit exercised in all spheres of his life and carried it forward in his stint with the army and beyond, perhaps. Says his wife of 10 years, Aparna, "We knew each other for four years before we got married. What attracted me towards him was his straightforwardness and dedication and devotion to whatever he was involved in. He has remained so after marriage and been a very responsible husband and a doting father to my two sons. He is a very sensitive and emotional man even though he does not let it show on his face."
Purohit indeed carried this characteristic sincerity to his workplace. He joined the army in 1994 and served for three years in Nagaland. After a further three-year stint in hometown Pune came the greatest challenge and thrill in the form of a posting in Kashmir.

CATCH-AND-KILL MAN

Entrusted with the task of raising 41 Rashtriya Rifles and fighting terrorists in Kashmir's Kupwara district, Purohit achieved more than expected. In his two years on a field posting Purohit conducted scores of successful operations and destroyed several terror modules. Kashmir also began to reveal the first signs of transformation in the man: from a soft-spoken, sober and well-behaved boy that his friends and teachers had known Purohit was morphing into quite someone else.

As Purohit's colleagues from this posting remember, he was ruthless with terrorists, especially those that came from outside the country; he spared none that he caught hold of. "He was known as the 'catch-and-kill officer' in our circles," says a colleague who worked with him in the fractured Valley. Purohit's work, however, was much appreciated by his seniors and he was soon recommended for a posting in military intelligence, a coveted department in the armed forces reserved for the finest in the force, the crème de la crème of warriors.

In 2002, Purohit was posted as head of military intelligence in Avantipora district where he again did exemplary work for the next two years. "He conducted about 150 successful operations against terrorists and used to come up with such precise information. He had even learnt Arabic to be more effective in interrogating terror suspects and deciphering intercepted calls. He was undoubtedly one of the finest officer MI had seen. Very effective and meticulous," says one of his seniors from the intelligence wing who had seen him at work. Word of mouth of his pluck had now travelled far, to the extent that the Maharashtra ATS, which has accused Purohit of terrorism, invited him in early 2005 to train its officers.

KASHMIR SCARRED THE MAN DEEPLY

But as Purohit dismantled one terror network after another, his peers began to note a distinct change in his personality. The extrovert and amiable officer of Kupwara was gradually turning silent and solemn, and disturbingly reclusive. "In Kupwara he used to freely mix with people, talk, laugh, exchange views on all sorts of things. But in Avantipora we saw him slowly transforming into a very different man. He would speak very little, keep to himself, work and go back to his room," says the colleague. This was also the time when Purohit started hob-nobbing with Hindu right wing leaders, one among them being an accused in the Malegaon blast, Sudhakar Dhar Dwivedi alias Dayanand Pandey.

Purohit's wife Aparna too remembers how the stint had had an impact on him. "Whenever he got any information about some plan of terrorists he used to look disturbed. In such moments he would often say: 'This country will be destroyed one day if things go on like this.' One could sense this concern for the country in him at that time," says Aparna.

Was it this heightened concern for the country in Purohit that eventually brewed into the toxic plan that led to the Malegaon blasts? One cannot risk saying that until the case is decided in the court, but the ATS is convinced of its case. Says a senior officer with the ATS, "It was during his stint in Kashmir that he pilfered RDX that was later used in the blast. He was forging documents and licences in his tenure there. What patriotism are we talking about? It shows a criminal mind. He had been planning it since then. He is no revolutionary. Had he been one, he would have been stoic about what he had done. But he acts extremely clever during interrogations and misleads us with wrong information. His eyes keep moving as if he is constantly thinking while he is being interrogated."

One does not know whether the ATS has enough evidence to back its talk, but a colleague, in hindsight, thinks he saw it coming. A long-standing colleague of Purohit remembers him telling them in a solemn conversation: "The Indian state is unable to defend Hindus, and it is incumbent on all of us to do something about it."