The advocate blasted ATS officers for scrambling the guidelines of Supreme Court. “As per the guidelines of Supreme Court, ATS officers should have made the memo of Purohit’s arrest,” he told the court.

Assistant police inspector Satish Gurav admitted he had not received the memo of arrest. He said he had revealed his identity at the Nashik court while seeking Purohit’s transit remand, and also at the Nashik jail.

Gaurav has sought Purohit’s custody for seven days. He said that Purohit got a fake gun licence for Date from Anantnag district in Jammu and Kashmir. “His custody is required for seizing the original copy of the licence and to know if he had provided fake gun licences to more persons,” he said. Shivade alleged that ATS has brought pressure on Date for lodging a complaint against Purohit. “ATS has failed to register an offence against Milind Date, who procured a gun with a fake licence,” he asked.

“It has been mentioned in the complaint that Purohit got a gun licence for Date in the name of Major Milind Date by submitting forged documents in 2003. Date is not an army officer and procured a weapon on the basis of the fake licence and kept silent till November 2008. Why did ATS not arrest him?” he said. “The only inference that can be drawn is that ATS put pressure on Date that if he did not give a statement against Purohit, they would file an offence against him. Date, being a coward, preferred to file a complaint of forgery and cheating against Purohit,” he alleged.