Times of India
November 22, 2008
Leading Delhi doctor under terror scanner
MUMBAI/DELHI: In a sensational twist to the investigations by the Maharashtra ATS, the needle of suspicion has now swung towards a Delhi-based
diabetes specialist of international renown, currently working with a leading private hospital.
This doctor, associated with World Hindu Federation, is also alleged to be closely involved with Abhinav Bharat - the extremist organisation whose founder members include Lt Col Shrikant Purohit.
The investigations have also revealed that while the Sangh Parivar might have taken up cudgels for him, Purohit allegedly conspired with Dayanand Pande, the self-anointed Shankaracharya, and a veteran ultra-Hindutva leader from Pune, Shyam Apte, to eliminate two leading RSS functionaries - general secretary Mohan Bhagwat and senior leader Indresh - for being 'soft' on Muslims.
This disclosure by Purohit to the ATS team - first reported by TOI on November 15 - has since allegedly been corroborated by Pande and Apte.
The material recovered from Pande's laptop has also borne out Purohit's anger against the RSS leaders and his plan to kill them, ATS sources said.
Purohit was apparently shocked by what he considered the pusillanimity of the RSS duo. He even suspected them of having been bought over by the ISI, revealed sources, adding that it was the Lt Colonel who convinced Pande and Apte of the desirability of getting rid of Bhagwat and Indresh.
Indresh, a well-known pracharak with a reputation of being a dynamic organiser, has been overseeing RSS's Muslim outreach -- an initiative which has the strong support of Mohanrao Bhagwat, widely tipped to take over from K S Sudharshan as the sarsanghchalak. Indresh, at the instance of Bhagwat and Sudarshan, had organised 'Aman-e-Paigham Yatra' (peace march) from Nizamuddin Dargah in Delhi to Hazratbal in Srinagar. The exercise was timed to coincide with the Amarnath agitation.
According to ATS sources, Purohit did a very good job of persuasion. So much so that Apte allegedly arranged for Rs 5 lakh for execution of the plot. For his part, Pande organised a 9mm Chinese pistol for the 'job'. Not just that, the alleged Swami even promised to make available to Purohit a poisonous powder which could be slipped in the shoes of any target leading to his destruction in 15 days.
Pande alias Sudhakar Dwivedi, who is fast emerging as what ATS sources called "a shrewd mind unburdened by scruples", claimed to have received the poison from a devotee during one of his 'spiritual tours' and was very pleased with the acquisition. He would boast of the ease with which he could kill by inviting the victim to his ashram where the protocol required visitors to take off their shoes.
However, both Pande and Apte felt disappointed when Purohit failed to fulfil his promise to find people to assassinate Bhagwat and Indresh. He had even introduced the would-be assassin to Apte.
The alleged plot takes on significance in view of the assessment of the ATS that Abhinav Bharat, the Indore-based Hindutva outfit that Purohit helped found, was drawing in Hindu radicals who found RSS's tactics too mild for their tastes. The growing appeal of Abhinav Bharat, according to police sources, had begun to cause anxieties to some Sangh Parivar leaders who sought out Purohit for collaboration and met him more than once in Mumbai.
The dissatisfaction Purohit and others had with RSS leadership mirrors the disappointment that many ultra-Hindus have felt with the Sangh leadership, disdaining its emphasis on abstract goals of character-building and fondness for lathis as completely inadequate to the threats facing Hindus.
Investigations have also unearthed what ATS sources described as unsavoury aspects of Pande. He was extremely fond of his laptop to the extent that many call him 'laptop wale baba'. The addiction, however, has led the ATS to a trove of information stored on his laptop. The information retrieved has been used to check the veracity of alibis and confront the suspects.
Pande also had a good rapport with Sadhvi Pragya Singh -- something which has led the ATS to examine afresh the extent of the latter's involvement in the terror plots.
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