CBI questions Lt Col on Nanded blast

New Delhi: The investigation against serving Army officer Lieutenant Colonel Srikant Prasad Purohit took a new turn on Friday with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) questioning him on the 2006 Nanded bomb blast.

The blast in Nanded had taken place on April 6, 2006 at the residence of a retired irrigation department engineer and Rashtriya Swamsewak Sangh activist Lakshman Rajkondawar.

Rajkondawar's son Naresh Lakshman Rajkondwar and Himanshu Venkatesh Panse were killed in the blast while four others - Yogesh Ravindra Deshpande Vidholkar, Maroti Kishore Wagh, Gururaj Jayaram Tuptewar and Rahul Manoharao Pande - were seriously injured.

Pande managed to flee from the scene of the explosion, but was arrested later.

Lt Col Purohit is already under investigation for his role in the September 29 Malegaon blast in which at least six people were killed.

Sources have told CNN-IBN that Lt Col Purohit masterminded the Malegaon blast but the army isn't buying the claim.

Lt Col Purohit is the first serving armyman to be arrested as a terror suspect but in all likelihood he may not be the last one.

The ATS claims a retired Lieutenant General and two more serving Colonels are also on its radar.

Sources also say that some more ex-armymen are likely to be questioned again.

And while the Army has said it is giving the ATS all cooperation, Defence Minister AK Antony is not yet ready to buy the ATS' claims.

"Army is fully assisting and cooperating with the investigating agencies. We are waiting for the report from the Maharashtra Police," says Antony says

Army Headquarters is also denying it has have got any requests from the ATS to interrogate more officers.

But what is baffling the investigators is the cooperation from Lt Col Purohit.

It is learnt that the Lt Col has been readily agreeing to a number of facts put forth to him during interrogations following which investigators confronted him with some wrong information and he agreed to them as well!

Now investigators are wondering if this is his military way of misleading the investigations.

ATS alleges that Lt Col Purohit is one of the key conspirators of the Malegaon blast. Purohit also allegedly helped in procuring RDX which was used in the blast and he is is allegedly the key co-ordinator between Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, retd Major Ramesh Upadhyay, Sameer Kulkarni, and others.

Lt Col Purohit is also suspected of transferring funds from various accounts into the account of Sbhinav Bharat treasurer Ajay Rahirkar.

The Army officer will also undergo brain mapping and polygraph tests in the presence of military intelligence officers in the next couple of day.

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