Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Shrikant Purohit, a distinguished officer in the Indian Army, has been promoted to the rank of full Colonel, concluding a 17-year journey fraught with wrongful arrest, legal challenges, and damage to his reputation.

Purohit's path to this milestone has been far from typical. In 2008, he was apprehended by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in connection with the Malegaon blast case, accused of providing RDX for an explosion that resulted in six deaths and over 100 injuries in a predominantly Muslim area. As the only active Army officer accused in such a case, Purohit attracted national scrutiny, with the charges framed as part of a "saffron terror" narrative. However, on July 31, 2025, a special court of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) acquitted him and six others, including BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur, citing insufficient evidence and contradictions in the prosecution's arguments.