Saffron brigade's terror plots exposed - Ashish Khetan

India Today

Courtesy: Headlines Today

Saffron brigade's terror plots exposed

Ashish Khetan
New Delhi, July 15, 2010

File picture: Mecca Masjid after blast.

A plot to target Vice-President Hamid Ansari. An RSS functionary mentoring the Ajmer Sharif and Mecca Masjid bomber. And a BJP leader planning an underground outfit to kill Muslims. The saffron brigade's terror agenda against minorities has been exposed.

Headlines Today has exclusively accessed material - in the form of video tapes and witness accounts available with investigators - that puts elements within the Sangh Parivar under the scanner.

Among those in the dock are RSS leader Indresh Kumar, BJP leader B.L. Sharma, Delhi-based endocrinologist Dr R.P. Singh and Dr Sharad Kunthe, head of the chemistry department at Pune's Wadia College.

INDRESH KUMAR, RSS
A Headlines Today investigation has found that RSS leader Indresh Kumar shared close links with Sunil Joshi, who had planted bombs in 2007 at the Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad and the Ajmer Sharif dargah.

As per a written statement of the witness recorded by the Rajasthan ATS and CBI, Indresh was aware of the terror plot and even approved of it.

Indresh is a member of the Akhil Bharatiya Karyakari Mandal, the central decision-making body of the RSS. He is a close aide of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and also wields immense clout in the BJP.

Headlines Today tracked down the witness, and his revelations are damning.

Reporter: So Indresh was the driving force behind Sunil Joshi's activities?
Witness: If you mentor someone and are his godfather, it cannot be possible that you aren't aware of his activities.
Reporter: And Joshi was very close to Indresh?
Witness: Yes he used to claim so.
Reporter: He said he was always with him?
Witness: He would say that he was in constant communication with Indreshji.

The witness, who is from Gujarat, was closely associated with Joshi, a Madhya Pradesh-based RSS pracharak.

The blast at Mecca Masjid killed 17 people while two people died in the explosion at Ajmer Sharif. The Mecca Masjid blast is being probed by the CBI while the Ajmer Sharif probe is with the Rajasthan Police.

In May this year, the Rajasthan ATS arrested two RSS pracharaks on terror charges. But the RSS has denied it has anything to do with terror.

"There is no such thing as Hindu terror. The investigating agencies wanted some information. We are extending full co-operation," RSS leader Ram Madhav said.

Now, with material emerging against Indresh, the RSS central leadership will have much to explain.

Indresh holds several important responsibilities in the RSS. One of them ironically being the head of Muslim Rashtriya Manch, the Sangh's Muslim cell.

When contacted by Headlines Today, Indresh denied all allegations.

B.L. SHARMA, BJP
Another Sangh Parivar leader in the dock is B.L. Sharma of the BJP. Headlines Today has accessed a video that shows Sharma in league with Dayanand Pandey and Lt Col Srikant Purohit, both accused in the 2008 Malegaon blasts and in jail.

In the video, Sharma is holding a meeting where he talks about starting an underground terrorist movement against Muslims. The meeting happened at a temple in Nasik in 2007 - at a time when Lt Col Purohit was posted there - and laid the foundation for the formation of Hindu militant group Abhinav Bharat.

Also present was Bhai Dalvi, a self-styled Hindu fanatic from Mumbai.

Here are excerpts from their conversation:

Dalvi: There should be blasts across India. People should die in lakhs and crores. Only then will they (Muslims) panic and come on our side.
Pandey: This will create pressure and they will convert on their own.
Dalvi: Yes.
Pandey: Once the conversion begins, it will not take long for the entire country to get converted (to Hinduism).
Sharma: They will return (to Hinduism) just the way they went away.
Pandey: You are right.

Sharma is a two-time BJP MP. He was elected from the East Delhi constituency in 1991 and 1996. He fought the 2009 Lok Sabha elections from North East Delhi but lost.

Investigators said Sharma also participated in other terror meetings that Abhinav Bharat held across the country. In public, however, he presented a different face, telling Headlines Today that he is a peace-loving man and against all terror activities.

DR R.P. SINGH, ENDOCRINOLOGIST
The saffron terror ring also had a vicious plan to target Vice-President Hamid Ansari.

As per information accessed from investigators by Headlines Today, a meeting was held in Faridabad in January 2008. It was attended by Dr R.P. Singh, an endocrinologist at one of Delhi's biggest hospitals, Dayanand Pandey, Lt Col Purohit and B.L Sharma. In this meeting, the failed bid to target Ansari was talked about.

Pandey: Let me tell you that an awards ceremony was held at Jamia Millia Islamia University in which Vice-President Hamid Ansari was present.
Dr Singh: I had gone to raise a protest at that meeting. I took 15 litres of petrol with me but I didn't get a chance.

In the same meeting, Purohit said they had stopped believing in the Indian Constitution and would fight to establish a 'Hindu rashtra'.

Sources in the Maharashtra ATS told Headlines Today that since there was no direct evidence to link Dr Singh to the Malegaon blasts, he wasn't arrested.

But the police said Dr Singh was part of the larger saffron terror ring and other agencies should have investigated him.

Headlines Today has accessed tapes recovered from Pandey's laptop that detail many such terror meetings. Here is what Dr Singh is heard saying in one these tapes:

Dr Singh: Muslims are enemy no. 1 and I want to kill them, beginning from Delhi. They own thousands of showrooms here that I want to loot.
Pandey: To strengthen our finances.
Dr Singh: The financial situation is weak... The Hindus will not give so some (Muslim) homes have been spotted for looting.

Dr Singh even mentions how he has accumulated weapons through a police officer in Assam. In one of the terror meetings, he can also be heard asking Purohit to supply him grenades, detonators and RDX.

Dr Singh: I need grenades, high-voltage detonators and batteries and RDX. Those of whom we approached say the army can provide these. If we get these items, we can do a spectacular war.

DR SHARAD KUNTHE, PUNE
If Dr Singh was being a disgrace to his profession, Pune's Dr Sharad Kunthe was poisoning young minds.

Dr Kunthe, head of the chemistry department at Wadia College, was suspected of holding training camps and teaching his students to assemble bombs.

He was grilled by the Maharashtra ATS for his alleged role in the Malegaon and Nanded blasts and is now under the CBI's scanner.

Dr Kunthe has been nailed by one of his aides Rakesh Dhawde, who helped him in his missions. "In June 2003, Dr Kunthe asked me to conduct a survey of the Pune Satara Road and Akansha bungalow near Sinhgadh Qila and let him know which would be better for a terror camp. After a survey, I suggested Sinhgadh would be appropriate," Dhawde told a magistrate.

Dhawde is an accused in the Malegaon blasts case and is lodged in the Nashik jail along with Lt Col Purohit.