Years go by and no will to probe Hindutva terror outfits in India

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Hindutva terror probe wallows in official lethargy

Krishna Kumar
Mumbai, June 15, 2010

How serious are the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Mumbai anti-terrorism squad (ATS) about cracking bomb blast cases with a Hindutva terror imprint? The Nanded blasts probe is a perfect indicator.

It's been four years since the terror strike, but the investigators have yet to trace the retired Intelligence Bureau (IB) officer who allegedly trained Bajrang Dal cadre and exhorted them to carry arms and ammunition.

The role of this former IB officer was revealed by merchant navy captain Sadanand Bhate, who had given a statement to the Nanded police after the blast in 2006. Bhate was also invited to train the saffron outfit's members in Nagpur for 10 days.

But he claimed to had left immediately because he felt the youths were being misguided. Before his hasty exit, he saw one 'Mr Singh' telling the cadre to carry firearms and take revenge on members of the minority community.

On April 6, 2006, a blast in the house of a retired executive engineer of the irrigation department claimed two lives and left three seriously injured.

ATS officers for their part claim that they have been hampered by the scope of the investigations in the Nanded case and later, the 2008 Malegaon blasts, and hence couldn't unravel the whole conspiracy.

"The problem is that the whole conspiracy was not hatched in one state. There have been numerous meetings between various accused spread across several states, which have taken place over a number of years," an officer said. The conspiracy was so large that ATS sleuths had a tough time probing the involvement of a huge number of people.

When asked specifically about the former IB officer, the ATS officer said it was the job of central intelligence agencies to investigate his role.
"While we are not absolving him, we didn't find his name in the Nanded blast plot, nor did we find his involvement in the 2008 Malegaon conspiracy. However, he could be involved in a bigger way. But again it was for the central intelligence agencies to find out as to who this Singh was. We are a state agency and hence cannot ask the IB to provide us with the names of its retired officers having surname of Singh," the officer added.

He said if the IB had been more vigilant, it could have prevented the Malegaon blast conspiracy well in advance. "The conversations recorded in Dayanand Pandey's laptop clearly show that on one instance, there was an IB officer who was present in one of the meetings. On seeing this officer, others were told to keep quiet and not to discuss their plans. We had passed this information to other agencies concerned. They should have found out who this IB officer was and why he didn't reveal the conspiracy to the police," the ATS officer said.

The Maharashtra ATS claims that it doesn't have the wherewithal to unravel the whole conspiracy spread across the country. It now insists that it knew about the network that was behind the blasts in Mecca Masjid, Ajmer and Malegaon.

"We always knew that Asimanand, now named by the CBI in the Mecca Masjid blast case, was involved in some way in the Malegaon blasts, too. He is absconding since Pragya Singh's arrest," an officer said.

Asimanand, like the ex- IB officer, is also at large ever since the blast. He was in close contact with Pragya and a few others.

According to the ATS officer, Asimanand is important as the anti- terror agency had come to know that he had attended a few meetings where the conspiracy to carry out a series of blasts was hatched. He had also provided training to some of the men in his ashram in Gujarat. So why did the ATS not declare him as an absconder or chargesheet him?

"We need stronger evidence against him. We have not given him a clean chit. However, we need evidence that could withstand scrutiny in the court," the ATS officer asserted.

Interestingly, he claimed that the department had not given up on Asimanand. A few teams of the ATS are still making frequent trips to Gujarat and the border areas near Nepal to apprehend him.

The ATS believes that it would have more information on Asimanand if it manages to arrest three of the alleged bomb planters. They are Ramji Kalsangra from Indore, Pravin Mutalik from Bangalore and one Sandeep Dange from Maharashtra.

ATS officials claimed that these three, especially Dange and Kalsangra, know a lot more about the involvement of Asimanand and others in the case.

The officer refused to accept the blame that the ATS was not able to crack the whole case.

"We were a bit overwhelmed by the scope of the investigation. We have been keeping the CBI and other intelligence agencies in the loop from the beginning. We gave them important leads." the officer said.