Mail Today, 1 February 2011
The bomber of Malegaon held
By Krishna Kumar in Mumbai
He was key member of Hindutva terror ring
THE MAHARASHTRA Anti- Terrorist Squad (ATS) made major headway in the 2008 Malegaon blast case late on Monday night when it nabbed Pravin Mutalik — allegedly a key member of the Hindutva terror network — after a two- year chase. The arrest was made in Karnataka’s Belgaum district.
The ATS believes that Mutalik played a key role in the case. He, along with Sandeep Dange and Ramji Kalsangra, planted the bomb in a bike in Malegaon on September 29, 2008. The blast killed seven persons.
ATS chief Rakesh Maria revealed on Tuesday that Mutalik held a diploma in mechanical engineering and ran a SIM card distribution agency at Gokak in Belgaum. He said the ATS had formed special teams to nab Mutalik and that they had narrowly missed snaring the accused a fortnight ago.
Mutalik’s name cropped up after the arrest of Lt Col Shrikant Purohit and Pragya Singh Thakur.
After being apprehended and taken to Mumbai, Mutalik was produced in a MCOCA court and has been remanded in police custody till February 14. His arrest is significant as the ATS was not able to find out the source of the RDX used to carry out the blast.
It is hoped that Mutalik’s arrest would give the ATS some information on where Dange and Kalsangra were hiding. It would also help the investigators in corroborating the statement of Swami Aseemanand, who had earlier confessed to the role of right- wing radical outfits in a number of blasts across the country.
Maria said that Mutalik was an ‘important member’ of radical outfit Abhinav Bharat and was part of the ‘ missing link’. “ He was acting as a personal secretary of Purohit. The forensic swab taken from the room where Mutalik stayed in Maharashtra and from the blast site in Malegaon showed traces of RDX,” the ATS chief disclosed. He was integral part of the whole conspiracy and had held meetings in Panchmarhi, Pune and Nashik in 2008, Maria added.
But the Karnataka Police had a different version to offer about Mutalik’s identity.
Belgaum SP Sandeep Patil maintained that the person arrested by the Mumbai ATS on Monday night was Praveen Venkatesh Tattalaki, who owned a mobile phone showroom in Gokak.
Patil, however, pointed out that there could be chances of Tattalaki using an alias to carry out the crime. “ If the ATS is sure of his identity, it should not be a problem,” he added.
With Aravind Gowda in Bangalore
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