The Telegraph
January 21, 2009
Sacked colonel’s Hindu state dream
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
Purohit
Mumbai, Jan. 20: Prasad Purohit, the sacked army officer and alleged Malegaon blast mastermind, dreamt of establishing a “Hindu Rashtra” and wished to seek Israel’s help to further his mission, police claimed today in its chargesheet in the case.
“He believed the Indian Constitution was not enough to tackle the repeated explosions in the country and wanted to establish a Hindu Rashtra. He wanted to take the help of Israel to further his cause,” said K.P. Raghuvanshi, the chief of the Maharashtra anti-terrorist squad.
The 4,500-page chargesheet was filed in a special court trying cases under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
The document, which contains evidence collected from 452 witnesses, was filed against 11 accused and includes charges under sections of the MCOCA, Indian Penal Code, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, Arms Act and the Explosive Substances Act.
Of the 11 accused, the ATS identified as masterminds Purohit, a lieutenant colonel who was with the military intelligence wing, Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur alias Purnachetanandagiri, Dayanand Pandey alias Swami Amritanandadev Teerth, a self-proclaimed shankaracharya, and Sameer Kulkarni, an activist of the Pune-based radical organisation Abhinav Bharat.
The bomb placed on a motorcycle, later traced to the sadhvi, had exploded in a market full of Id shoppers in Muslim-dominated Malegaon on September 29, 2008, killing six and injuring 101 people.
Others named in the chargesheet include the sadhvi’s associates, Shivnarayan Kalsangra and Sham Sahu. The Abhinav Bharat’s working president, Ramesh Upadhyay, also a retired army official, the outfit’s treasurer, Ajay Rahirkar, antique arms dealer Rakesh Dhawde, Sudhakar Chaturvedi and Jagdish Mhatre are also named.
Three others — alleged bomb planters Ramji Kalsangra, Sameer Dange and Praveen Patil alias Praveen Mutalik —were declared absconders.
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