Hindutva leader to be booked for Samjhauta blast - 2 reports from Times of India

The Times of India

Saffron terror leader to be booked for Samjhauta blast

by Vishwa Mohan & Dwaipayan Ghosh, TNN, Jan 6, 2011, 12.54am IST

NEW DELHI: The National Investigation Agency probing the blast on Samjhauta Express in February 2007 looks set to book militant Hindutva leader Aseemanand. It has identified Aseemanand as the key plotter of the attack that killed 68 people, majority of them Pakistani citizens returning home after visiting their kin in India.

Sources in the agency, which was brought in after investigations by Haryana Police reached a dead-end, told TOI that Aseemanand planned the blast to avenge the series of terror attacks by Islamist terror groups.

"The role of Hindu extremists behind the blast has become clear. The probe agency found that Aseemanand was one of the plotters. The group had done it under their 'Bomb-for-Bomb' plan which was hatched in the Dangs district of Gujarat," said sources in the NIA.

Haryana police had found similarities in the explosives used in the Samjhauta blast and the explosion at Hyderabad's Mecca Masjid, another attack suspected to have been carried out by Aseemanand and his comrades under the 'Bomb-for-Bomb' plan.

But the Haryana cops could not connect the dots. The picture was further complicated when the US named a Pakistani terrorist, Asif Kasmani, suspected to be a go-between Lashkar and al-Qaida, as the main suspect in the Samajhauta blast.

NIA's probe into the cases of saffron terror has gathered momentum after the arrest of Aseemanand who is believed to have inspired Abhinav Bharat members to retaliate against Islamist terror.

NIA's investigation into the Samjhauta train attack may give Pakistan a handle to embarrass India. Officials are wary of the possibility of Islamabad asking for Aseemanand's custody once he is charge-sheeted. But the government has decided to press ahead with the probe, said an official.

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The Times of India

From a swami to kingpin of 'Hindutva terror'

Yagnesh Mehta, TNN, Jan 5, 2011, 05.54am IST


Swami Aseemanand is the latest big name in the "Hindutva" terror web blamed for a series of blasts; starting with Samjhauta Express in 2007 to the ones at shrines in Hyderabad, Ajmer and Malegaon.

The 58-year-old, whose real name is Jatin Chatterjee, is best known for reconverting tribals in the remote Dangs area of Gujarat from Christianity to Hinduism.

But as the anti-terrorist squad and then the National Investigation Agency (NIA) dug deeper, they found that Aseemanand was more than just a preacher.

Investigators believe that the "bomb-for-bomb" policy of the extremist Hindu groups was formulated at Shabridham in the Dangs during the Shabri Kumbh held from February 11 to 13, 2006. The Shabri Kumbh, a mela was the brainchild of Aseemanand who came to the Dangs in 1995. In fact, the success of the fair helped BJP win the Dangs assembly seat for the first time in 2007. Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Sunil Joshi, Ramji Kalsangra, Lokesh Sharma and Sandeep Dange were some at the saffron activists who participated in the 2006 Shabri Kumbh.

The investigators are now trying to put together the story of how the conspirators managed to not only create a terror network but also acquired skills to make sophisticated bombs within just a year.

Aseemanand's case cropped up soon after the arrest of Sadhvi Pragya Thakur in the Malegaon blast case. He was using a mobile phone registered in the name of his driver Sunil Dahod. Many calls were made from this phone to Sadhvi Pragya Thakur. The Maharashtra ATS questioned Dahod in November 2008 to track Aseemanand but he escaped. He was finally arrested by the CBI in Haridwar on November 19 last year.

The 80-page chargesheet filed by CBI said Aseemanand held a meeting within 10 days of the bomb explosion at Sankatmochan temple in Varanasi in March 2006 with his supporters.

On Monday, the NIA told the court that the Samjhauta blast was hatched in the Dangs district of Gujarat and at Chittaranjan in West Bengal.

Aseemanand first landed in the Dangs as a member of the Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram, an RSS front organisation. Before that, he was active in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands.

Born and brought up in West Bengal, Aseemanand completed his masters in physics from West Bengal's Burdwan University and joined the Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram in 1978.

Aseemanand's reconversion drive spread to the neighbouring tribal areas of Valsad, Navsari and Surat of Gujarat and Nandurbar of Maharashtra.

He started reconversion of Christian tribals to Hinduism with a bath at the hot water spring at Unai temple. He gained a fair amount of popularity during this time. After around two years of stay in the Dangs, Aseemanand managed to create strong feelings among Hindu tribals which led to anti-Christian riots in December 1998 in various parts of the backward area.

Then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and leader of opposition Sonia Gandhi had then visited the Dangs. Following the riots, Aseemananad went underground for a year.