Purohit waits for his check-up at a Mumbai hospital on Saturday. (PTI)

Mumbai, Nov. 15: Arrested army officer Shrikant Prasad Purohit sourced over 60kg of RDX during his stint in Jammu and Kashmir and may have provided a part of it for use in explosions in Malegaon and aboard the peace train Samjhauta Express, investigators said in court today.

The revelation came when the Maharashtra anti-terrorist squad (ATS) produced the lieutenant colonel before the Nashik chief judicial magistrate for further remand.

ATS counsel Ajay Misar claimed that a Malegaon blast witness had quoted Purohit as saying he had procured 60kg of RDX during his stint in Jammu and Kashmir in 2006 and that he gave a part of it to a man named Bhagwan.

The ATS, Misar said, suspects that portions of the explosive material may have been used in last year’s Samjhauta Express blasts and in the September 29 Malegaon explosion.

On February 18, 2007, the peace train between India and Pakistan had been rocked by twin blasts near Panipat in Haryana, killing 68 people.

A team of Haryana railway police is currently in Mumbai to interrogate Purohit.

However, sources in the Forensic Sciences Laboratory at Madhuban in Haryana, which analysed evidence from the Panipat site, said the explosive device was made up of potassium chlorate, carbon and sulphur along with diesel or petrol and magnesium wires. No RDX was used, they added.

Misar claimed Purohit had told the ATS he had thrown the RDX into the Jhelum, but the investigations indicated he had managed to transport the explosive material to his next posting in military intelligence at Deolali in Nashik.

Describing Purohit as one of the four masterminds of the Malegaon explosion that killed five persons, Misar said the ATS had found evidence linking the officer with sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and Kanpur-based religious leader Swami Amritanand alias Dayanand Pandey. He said Pandey had introduced Purohit to Malegaon bomb planter Ramji Kalsangra, who is absconding.

The court dismissed applications filed by the defence alleging illegal detention and torture in ATS custody. Purohit has been remanded in police custody till November 18.