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Purohit's testimony leads ATS to make other arrests
Published on Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 12:56, Updated on Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 23:31 in India section
Tags: Malegaon Blasts, Sadhvi , Nashik
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Nashik: Lt Col Purohit Prasad, one of the main accused in the Malegaon blasts, will be produced in a Nashik Court. His time in police custody expires on Tuesday.
A local court had extended Purohit's custody in an earlier hearing. He was arrested on November 5 by the Mumbai anti-terrorism squad (ATS) and has been subjected to a battery of tests, including brain mapping, polygraph, psychological profiling and narco-analysis. Police claim subsequent arrests were based on his testimony.
Two years ago security agencies got the first hint of an Hindu terror network. Despite a full fledged investigation and chargesheets being filed in Nanded Court, the Maharashtra government and UPA ignored the revelations.
On April 2006, bombs explode in a house in Nanded owned by retired irrigation department official Laxman Rajkondwar.
Two Bajrang Dal activists, Naresh Rajkondwar and Himanshu Venkatesh Panse, were killed.
Twenty two suspects are arrested. Police investigations reveal the existence of a Hindutva terror network.
Given the sensitivities involved, the investigation is handed over to the CBI.
But the CBI dithers for nearly two years on the grounds that it has not received a go-ahead from the state and central governments. All the 22 accused are, therefore, discharged.
But what exactly had the police investigations found.
At the site of the bomb explosion police recovered false beards and muslim skull caps.
Bomb making ingredients too were recovered.
Stunning revelations have surfaced from the Maharashtra ATS investigation.
Hindutva militants were trained at the Akash Resort at Sinhagad, near Pune in 2003. In all 54 people were trained.
These militants were encouraged and financially supported by RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal leaders from Mumbai and Pune.
The name of Govinda Puranik, a VHP leader, came up in this connection
Hindutva militants carried out attacks on mosques in Parbhani, Jalna and Purna blasts in central Maharashtra in 2004.
Praveen Togadia of VHP had come to meet them and had given a speech.
The Nanded accused repeatedly spoke about their trainer, a bearded man, tall and stoutly built, who called himself 'Mithun Chakravarty' and trained them to make bombs.
He even gave them a bag which contained ingredients to make bombs.
Maharashtra ATS is probing whether Mithun Chakravarty is an alias for Lt Col Purohit
Will Malegaon investigations go the Nanded way? But one aspect of the police investigations doesn't need any more corroborative evidence.
It is clear that certain sections of hardline Hindutva extremists did set up a terror network for what is now being called retributive terrorism through which a "fitting reply" is given to terrorism of Muslim groups backed by Pakistan.
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