Mateen Hafeez/TNN
 
Mumbai, Nov 17: Maharashtra's Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Sunday denied that the 60kg of RDX that Lt-Col Prasad Purohit had pilfered was used in the Samjhauta Express blast in February last year. Public prosecutor Ajay Misar, representing the ATS in the Malegaon blast case, had on Saturday told a Nashik court that the pilfered RDX was used in the Samjhauta blast case.

However, on Sunday, he blamed the media for "wrong interpretation" of his remark in the court. "I told the court that the police have to find out whether the 60kg RDX was used in some blasts across the country, including the Malegaon blast. My sentence has wrongly been interpreted by some newspapers," Misar said.

"I don't know what Misar has told the court. I will have to check it out. We have not mentioned the use of RDX (in the Samjhauta case) in the remand papers. The ATS will not say such a thing without corroborating it with a witness," ATS chief Hemant Karkare told TOI on Sunday.

Around 70 persons, most of them Pakistani passengers, were killed near Panipat in the blast. The forensic analysis report of the Samjhauta blast had said that the material used in the blast was a highly flammable cocktail of fuel oils, potassium chlorate and sulphur.

Misar told the court on Saturday that Purohit (39) had handed over 60 kg RDX to one person identified as Bhagwan who used it for the Samjhauta blast. "A witness told us that Purohit had 60 kg RDX in his possession while posted in Deolali, Nashik. He had to deposit the explosive at the army's artillery department in Jammu and Kashmir. However, Purohit told our witness that he had not deposited the explosive with the army and instead told them that he had threw it into the Jhelum river in J&K. He later gave the RDX to a person named Bhagwan who used it in the Samjhauta train bomb blast," Misar had told chief judicial magistrate H K Gantra while seeking an extension in Purohit's police custody.

Interestingly, the ATS prosecutor also did not clarify whether the Army conducted any internal probe after the 60kg RDX went missing and how much RDX was used in the train blast.