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From
Tehelka Magazine, Vol 8, Issue 2, Dated January 15, 2011
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CURRENT AFFAIRS
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HINDUTVA TERROR
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In
the words of a zealot…
Swami
Aseemanand’s chilling confession is the first legal evidence of RSS
pracharaks’ involvement in the Samjhauta Express and 2006 Malegaon
blasts. ASHISH KHETAN scoops the 42-page document that reveals
a frightening story of hate and deliberate mayhem
ON
18 DECEMBER 2010,
a team of CBI sleuths escorted an elderly Bengali man Naba Kumar
Sarkar, 59 — popularly known as Swami Aseemanand — from Tihar jail to
the Tis Hazari court in Delhi, where he was produced before
metropolitan magistrate Deepak Dabas. Aseemanand is the key accused
in the 2007 Mecca Masjid blast that killed nine people. This was his
second court appearance in a span of little over 48 hours. On 16
December, Aseemanand had requested the magistrate to record his
confession about his involvement in a string of terror attacks. He
stated that he was making the confession without any fear, force,
coercion or inducement.
In
accordance with the law, the magistrate asked Aseemanand to reflect
over his decision and sent him to judicial custody for two days —
away from any police interference or influence.
On
18 December, Aseemanand returned, resolute. The magistrate asked
everybody except his stenographer to leave his chamber. “I know I can
be sentenced to the death penalty but I still want to make the
confession,” Aseemanand said.
Over
the next five hours, in an unprecedented move, Aseemanand laid bare
an explosive story about the involvement of a few Hindutva leaders,
including himself, in planning and executing a series of gruesome
terror attacks. Over the past few years, several pieces of the
Hindutva terror puzzle have slowly been falling into place — each
piece corroborating and validating what has gone before. First, the
arrest of Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, Dayanand Pandey, Lt Col Shrikant
Purohit and others in 2008. The seizure of 37 audio tapes from
Pandey’s laptop that featured all these people discussing their
terror activities. And most recently, the Rajasthan ATS’ chargesheet
on the 2007 Ajmer Sharif blast. Aseemanand’s confession, however, is
likely to prove one of the most crucial pieces for investigative
agencies.
Unlike
police interrogation reports or confessions, under clause 164 of the
Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), confessions before a magistrate are
considered legally admissible evidence. Aseemanand’s statement,
therefore, is extremely crucial and will have serious ramifications.
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HINDUTVA’S DEADLY PLATOON
The men who allegedly vowed to match Islamist terror with
Hindutva terror: bomb for bomb
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INDRESH KUMAR, a member of the RSS
Central Committee. Three accused, Swami Aseemanand, Lokesh Sharma
and Shivam Dhakad, and one witness, Bharat Riteshwar, have stated
before the CBI that Indresh had mentored and financed the RSS
pracharaks behind Malegaon, Samjhauta Express, Ajmer and Mecca
Masjid terror strikes.
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SWAMI ASEEMANAND, the head of the
RSS-affiliated Van Vasi Kalyan Ashram, Shabri Dham in Dangs,
Gujarat. He has confessed to playing the role of an ideologue to
the terrorists. Besides presiding over terror meetings held in
Dangs and Valsad in Gujarat, he also selected Malgeaon, Ajmer
Sharif and Hyderabad as terror targets.
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SUNIL JOSHI, a former RSS pracharak
of Mhow district. He was expelled from the RSS after being
accused in the murder of two Congress activists in Madhya Pradesh
in 2006. Along with a few RSS pracharaks and Hindu radicals from
Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Jammu and Jharkhand, he
formed an inter-state terror infrastructure.
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SANDEEP DANGE, a senior RSS pracharak
from Shajapur district near Indore. Along with Joshi and
Ramchandra Kalsangra, he was a key figure in the longrunning
conspiracy to bomb Muslim places of worship and Muslim
neigbourhoods. He is currently absconding.
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RAM CHANDRA KALSANGRA ALIAS RAMJI, an RSS pracharak from
Madhya Pradesh. He carried out terror strikes in different places
between December 2002 and 29 September 2008 (when bombs went off
simultaneously in Malegaon and Modasa. He has been absconding
since October 2008.
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SHIVAM DHAKHAD, an RSS activist and
associate of accused Joshi and Ramji Kalsangra. Along with other
RSS pracharaks, he allegedly took training in bomb-making in
2005. He also did a reconnaissance of Aligarh Muslim University
and residence of Justice UC Banerjee (chairman of the Godhra
commission) for terror strikes.
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LT COL SHRIKANT PUROHIT, a founding member of
terror outfit Abhinav Bharat. He was posted with the military
intelligence unit at Nashik. He allegedly tried to draft in other
army officers in his terror outfit. He is accused of supplying
RDX for the 2008 Malegaon blasts.
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DEVENDRA GUPTA, the RSS vibhag
pracharak of Muzaffarnagar, Bihar. He provided logistics to
Joshi, Kalsangra and Dange for terror strikes. He also harboured
Kalsangra and Dange in RSS offices while they were on the run.
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LOKESH SHARMA, an RSS worker and
close associate of Joshi, Dange and Kalsangra. He purchased the
two Nokia handsets that were used to trigger the bombs at Mecca
Masjid and Ajmer Sharif.
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BHARAT RATESWAR ALIAS BHARATBHAI, the head of Sri
Vivekananda Kendra Sansthan in Valsad district, Gujarat. As a
close associate of Aseemanand, he participated in several terror
meetings held at his residence and also at Shabri Dham ashram. He
also travelled with Joshi to Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh
providing logistics for the blasts.
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YOGI ADITYANATH, BJP MP from Gorakhpur.
He was contacted by Aseemanand to provide funds for terrorist
activities. Joshi held a hush-hush meeting with him at his
Gorakhpur residence in 2006, at the time when the conspiracy to
carry out multiple blasts was underway. According to Aseemanand,
he didn’t give much support. But he continues to be under
suspicion.
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DR ASHOK VARSHNAY, RSS prant pracharak of
Kanpur. He sheltered key terror accused and RSS pracharak
Devendra Gupta at Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram and Vishwa Mangal Gau
Gram Yatra in Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh, while Gupta was on the run.
Varshnay has told investigators that he had shielded Gupta at the
behest of Indresh Kumar.
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RAJESH MISHRA, an RSS activist and
owner of a foundry in Pithampura, near Mhow. He gave 15 cast iron
shells in 2001 to Joshi, who used them during failed bomb blasts
at Ijtema (a Muslim gathering) in Bhopal in 2002. He was also a
co-accused along with Joshi in the murder of local Congress
workers.
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SUDHAKAR DHAR DWIVEDI ALIAS DAYANAND PANDEY, he ran an ashram named
Shardapeeth in Jammu. He played the role of an ideologue to those
involved in the 2008 Malegaon blasts. He was in the habit of
recording the meetings he would have with Abhinav Bharat members
on his laptop.
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For
years, since the first horrific blasts in Mumbai in 1992, there has
been an automatic and damaging perception amongst most Indians that
there is a Muslim hand behind every terror blast. To some degree,
this bias was shared by the police and intelligence agencies. Every
time there was a blast, under intense pressure from both media and
government to show results, instead of going in for painstaking and
meticulous investigations to catch the real culprits, the security
agencies would routinely round up Muslim boys linked with radical
organisations and declare them to be terror masterminds. A frenzied
media would swallow the story whole. Though a dangerous cocktail of
anger, despair and frustration grew within the Muslim community, few
Indians — except members of civil society and media organisations
like TEHELKA — dared to take stands and question the status quo. The
arrest of Sadhvi Pragya and Lt Col Purohit dented this perception
slightly, but they were mostly written off as a small and lunatic
fringe. Now, Aseemanand’s confession tears much deeper through this
prejudice.
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‘I know I can be sentenced with the death
penalty but I still want to make this confession,’ Swami
Aseemanand told the magistrate
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According
to him, it was not Muslim boys but a team of RSS pracharaks who
exploded bombs in Malegaon in 2006 and 2008, on the Samjhauta Express
in 2007, in Ajmer Sharif in 2007 and Mecca Masjid in 2007. Apart from
the tragic loss of innocent lives in these blasts, what makes this
admission doubly disturbing is that, in keeping with their habitual
practice, scores of Muslim boys were wrongly picked up by the Andhra
Pradesh and Maharashtra Police, in collusion with sections of the
Intelligence Bureau, and tortured and jailed for these blasts —
accentuating the shrill paranoia about a vast and homegrown Islamist
terror network. Many of these boys were acquitted after years in
jail; some are still languishing inside, their youth and future
destroyed, their families reduced to penury.
In
a curious twist, however, in one of those inexplicable human
experiences that no one can account for, according to Aseemanand, it
was an encounter with one of these jailed Muslim boys that triggered
a momentous emotional transformation in him, forcing him to confront
his conscience and make amends. This is what Aseemanand told the
judge: “Sir, when I was lodged in Chanchalguda district jail in
Hyderabad, one of my co-inmates was Kaleem. During my interaction
with Kaleem I learnt that he was previously arrested in the Mecca
Masjid bomb blast case and he had to spend about oneand- a-half years
in prison. During my stay in jail, Kaleem helped me a lot and used to
serve me by bringing water, food, etc for me. I was very moved by
Kaleem’s good conduct and my conscience asked me to do prayschit
(penance) by making a confessional statement so that real culprits
can be punished and no innocent has to suffer.”
At
this point, the magistrate asked his stenographer to leave so the
confession could continue without restraint.
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Tell-all evidence? A photocopy of Swami
Aseemanand’s 42-page confession before the magistrate
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In
a signed statement written in Hindi that runs into 42 pages — and
which is in TEHELKA’s possession — Aseemanand then proceeded to
unravel the inner workings of the Hindutva terror network. According
to him, it was not just a rump group like the ultra-right wing
organisation Abhinav Bharat that engineered blasts but, shockingly,
RSS national executive member Indresh Kumar who allegedly handpicked
and financed some RSS pracharaks to carry out terror attacks.
“Indreshji
met me at Shabri Dham (Aseemanand’s ashram in the Dangs district of
Gujarat) sometime in 2005,” Aseemanand told the magistrate. “He was
accompanied by many top RSS functionaries. He told me that exploding
bombs was not my job and instead told me to focus on the tribal
welfare work assigned to me by the RSS. He said he had deputed Sunil
Joshi for this job (terror attacks) and he would extend Joshi whatever
help was required.” Aseemanand further narrated how Indresh financed
Joshi for his terror activities and provided him men to plant bombs.
Aseemanand also confessed to his own role in the terror plots and how
he had motivated a bunch of RSS pracharaks and other Hindu radicals
to carry out terror strikes at Malegaon, Hyderabad and Ajmer.
(TEHELKA tried contacting Indresh several times for his side of the
story. He said he would call back but didn’t.)
While
evidence of the involvement of RSS pracharaks in the Mecca Masjid and
Ajmer blasts has been growing with every new arrest, Aseemanand’s
confession is the first direct evidence of the involvement of
Hindutva extremists in the 2006 Malegaon blasts and the Samjhauta
Express blast. The evidence — both, direct and indirect — pieced
together by the CBI shows that the broad terror conspiracy to target
Muslims and their places of religious worship was hatched around
2001.
Three
RSS pracharaks from Madhya Pradesh — Sunil Joshi, Ramchandra
Kalsangra and Sandeep Dange — were apparently at the core of this
conspiracy. As the three became more audacious in their terror
ambitions they started inducting like-minded Hindutva radicals from
other states, mainly Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan. While the
new entrants were mostly from the RSS, Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu
Parishad, some members of fringe saffron groups like Abhinav Bharat,
Jai Vande Matram and Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram also joined the fray.
However,
Joshi, Kalsangra and Dange took the precaution of not sharing too
many details with members outside the core group. Joshi strictly
followed the doctrine of division of work on a ‘need-tok-now’ basis,
with each member knowing only his part of the job.
Aseemanand,
who ran a Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram in Dang, first came in contact with
Sunil Joshi in 2003 but it was only in March 2006 that he became
actively involved in the terror plot.
It
was the spirited investigation into the 2008 Malegaon blast by
Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare that first blew the lid off this
broad Hindutva terror conspiracy. Karkare arrested 11 Hindutva
radicals, including Lt Col Purohit, who was attached with the
military intelligence unit at Nashik; Dayanand Pandey, a self-styled
religious guru who ran an ashram named Sharda Peeth in Jammu and
Sadhvi Pragya, an ABVP leader turned into an ascetic, for their role
in the 2008 Malegaon blast.
But
Karkare’s sudden and ironic killing at the hands of Islamist jihadis
in the Mumbai 26/11 attack derailed the saffron terror investigation.
The Maharashtra ATS under its new chief KP Raghuvanshi failed to
arrest Ramchandra Kalsangra and Sandeep Dange and instead passed them
off as minor players in the chargesheet.
The
investigation picked up pace again in May 2010 with the arrest of two
RSS pracharaks — Devendra Gupta and Lokesh Sharma — by the Rajasthan
ATS which was probing the Ajmer blast case. Gupta was the RSS Vibagh
Pracharak of Muzaffarnagar, Bihar. He provided logistical support to
Joshi, Kalsangra and Dange and harboured the latter two in RSS
offices while they were on the run from agencies.
Lokesh
Sharma was a RSS worker close to Joshi. He purchased the two Nokia
phones that were used to trigger bombs at Mecca Masjid and Ajmer
Sharif. It is Sharma’s interrogation that revealed for the first time
that RSS national executive member Indresh Kumar was a key figure in
the terror conspiracy. The joint investigation of the Rajasthan ATS
and CBI, in fact, went on to reveal that, except Pragya Singh Thakur,
all those who were arrested by the Maharashtra ATS in 2008 were
actually fringe players while the core group comprising Indresh
Kumar, Kalsangra and Dange allegedly held the key to the full terror
plot.
In
June 2010, the CBI examined a witness named Bharat Riteshwar, a
resident of district Valsad in Gujarat and a close associate of Swami
Aseemanand. Riteshwar told the CBI that Sunil Joshi was a protégé of
Indresh and had his approval and logistical support for carrying out
terror attacks.
On
19 November 2010 the CBI cracked down on a hideout in Haridwar and
arrested Swami Aseemanand, who had been a fugitive for over two years
since Sadhvi Pragya’s arrest in October 2008. His arrest unlocked
many more pieces.
NABA
KUMAR — alias Swami Aseemanand
— was originally from Kamaarpukar village in Hooghly district in West
Bengal — the birthplace of Ramakrishna Paramhansa. In 1971, after
completing his BSc (honours) from Hooghly, Naba Kumar went to Bardman
district to pursue a master’s degree in science. Though he was
involved with RSS activities from school, it was during his
post-graduation years that Naba Kumar became an active RSS member. In
1977, he started working full-time with the RSS-run Vanvasi Kalyan
Ashram in Purulia and Bankura districts. In 1981, his guru Swami
Parmanand rechristened him as Swami Aseemanand.
From
1988 to 1993, he served with the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram at Andaman and
Nicobar islands. Between 1993 and 1997, he toured across India to
deliver sermons on Hindu religion among the tribals. In 1997, he
settled down in the Dangs district in Gujarat and started a tribal
welfare organisation called Shabri Dham. Aseemanand was known in the
area for his rabid anti-minority speeches and his relentless campaign
against Christian missionaries.
Aseemanand
is seen as being close to the RSS leadership. In the past, leaders
like Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Madhya Pradesh Chief
Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan, former RSS chief KS Sudarshan and
current chief Mohan Bhagwat have attended religious functions
organised by him at Shabri Dham.
While
Aseemanand was known for his vitriolic anti-minority positions,
according to his confession, it was the heinous massacre of Hindu
devotees at Akshardham temple by Islamist suicide bombers in 2002
that was the first real kindle for their retaliatory terror attacks.
“The
Muslim terrorists started attacking Hindu temples in 2002,”
Aseemanand said. “This caused great concern and anger in me. I used
to share my concerns about the growing menace of Islamic terrorism
with Bharat Riteshwar of Valsad.”
In
2003, Aseemanand came in contact with Sunil Joshi and Pragya Singh
Thakur. He would often discuss Islamist terrorism with them as well.
Finally, according to him, it was the terror attack on Sankatmochan
temple in Varanasi in March 2006 which was the real flashpoint for
them.
“In
March 2006, Pragya Thakur, Sunil Joshi, Bharat Riteshwar and I
decided to give a befitting reply to the Sankatmochan blasts,”
Aseemanand told the magistrate.
Aseemanand
gave Rs. 25,000 to Joshi to arrange the necessary logistics for the
blasts. He also sent Joshi and Riteshwar to Gorakhpur to seek
assistance from firebrand BJP MP Yogi Adityanath. In April 2006,
Joshi apparently held a hush-hush meeting with the Adityanath,
infamous for his rabid anti-Muslim speeches. But Aseemanand says,
“Joshi came back and told me that Adityanath was not of much help.”
However,
this did not deter Aseemanand. He went ahead with his plans.
In
June 2006, Aseemanand, Riteshwar, Sadhvi Pragya and Joshi again met
at Riteshwar’s house in Valsad. It proved to be a chilling one, with
far-reaching consequences. Joshi, for the first time, brought four
associates with him — Dange, Kalsangra, Lokesh Sharma and Ashok alias
Amit.
“I
told everybody that bomb ka jawab bomb se dena chahiye, (I
told everyone we should answer bombs with bombs),” says Aseemanand.
“At that meeting I realised Joshi and his group were already doing
something on the subject,” he adds.
“After
the combined meeting,” Aseemanand says, “Joshi, Pragya, Riteshwar and
I huddled together for a separate meeting. I suggested that 80
percent of the people of Malegaon were Muslims and we should explode
the first bomb in Malegaon itself. I also said that during the
Partition, the Nizam of Hyderabad had wanted to go with Pakistan so
Hyderabad was also a fair target. Then I said that since Hindus also
throng the Ajmer Sharif Dargah in large numbers we should also
explode a bomb in Ajmer which would deter the Hindus from going
there. I also suggested the Aligarh Muslim University as a terror
target.”
According
to Aseemanand everybody agreed to target these places.
“In
the meeting,” Aseemanand continues, “Joshi suggested that it was
basically Pakistanis who travel on the Samjhauta Express train that
runs between India and Pakistan and therefore we should attack the
train as well. Joshi took the responsibility of targeting Samjhauta
himself and said that the chemicals required for the blasts would be
arranged by Dange.”
Aseemanand’s
confession goes on in grave detail. “Joshi said three teams would be
constituted to execute the blasts. One team would arrange finance and
logistics. The second team would arrange for the explosives. And the
third team would plant the bombs. He also said that the members of
one team should not know members from the other two teams. So even if
one gets arrested the others would remain safe,” Aseemanand told the
magistrate.
Hate
and anger had slipped off the edge into mayhem.
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‘Since Hindus throng the Ajmer Sharif Dargah
we thought a bomb blast in Ajmer would deter Hindus from going
there,’ the Swami said
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ON
8 SEPTEMBER 2006, at 1.30 pm, four
bombs exploded in the communally tense town of Malegaon in
Maharashtra. Besides being a Friday, the Muslim festival Shab-e-barat
was being observed. Three bombs went off in the compound of the Hamidiya
Masjid and Bada Kabrastan. A fourth bomb exploded at Mushawart Chowk.
Out
of three bombs, one was placed at the entrance gate of Hamidiya
Masjid and Bada Kabrastan, the second on a bicycle parked in the
parking lot situated inside the compound and the third was hung on
the wall of the power supply room situated in front of Vaju Khana,
inside the compound. The fourth bomb went off in the crowded junction
of Mushawart Chowk, which was placed on a bicycle, near an electric
pole. The attack was meticulously planned; the bombs exploded in
quick succession. Thirty one Muslims were killed; over 312 were
injured.
In
a suspiciously swift investigation, the Maharashtra ATS arraigned
nine Malegaon Muslims within 90 days. Eight of these were members of
the Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), the outlawed radical
Muslim outfit. Another three Malegaon Muslims were shown absconding.
Stringent provisions of the draconian Maharashtra Control of
Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) were invoked.
On
21 December 2006, the same day that the ATS filed the chargesheet
against the nine Malegaon Muslims, the Maharashtra government asked
the CBI to take over the probe. In effect, the CBI was presented with
a fait accompli: the case had already been so-called solved and the
accused had been chargesheeted.
A
year ago, the CBI filed a supplementary chargesheet but failed to
produce any material evidence. For over four years, these nine
Malegaon Muslims have been languishing in prison. Aseemanand’s
confession now seems proof that the boys were innocent and had been
arrested merely to deflect criticism and create a false sense of
security among Indian citizens that the blast cases were being
“solved”. The real mastermind, according to Aseemanand, was Sunil
Joshi. And it was Aseemanand himself who had persuaded Joshi to
explode bombs in Malegaon.
This
is what he told the magistrate. “Joshi came to see me at Shabri Dham
on Diwali in 2006. The Malegaon blasts had already happened. Sunil
told me the blasts were carried out by our men. I said the newspaper
reports had mentioned that Muslims were behind the blasts and a few
Muslims had also been arrested. Sunil assured me the blasts were
carried out by him but he refused to reveal the identity of our men
who had executed the blasts.”
ON
18 February 2007, on the eve
of the then Pakistan foreign minister Khurshid Kasuri’s visit to
India to carry forward the peace dialogue, two powerful bombs went
off around midnight in two coaches of the cross-border Samjhauta
Express, running between Delhi and Lahore. The train had reached
Diwana near Panipat, 80 km north of Delhi. The coaches turned into an
inferno. The third bomb placed in another coach failed to detonate.
Sixty eight people were killed. Dozens were injured. The peace
dialogue received a big setback.
Investigation
revealed that three suitcases filled with detonators, timers, iron
pipes containing explosives and bottles filled with petrol and
kerosene had been smuggled into the three coaches.
The
needle of suspicion veered immediately to Pakistani extremists.
Depending upon which investigating agency you were speaking to,
Pakistan-based terror outfits mainly Harkat-ul-Jihad Islami (HUJI) and
Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT)were blamed for the blasts. Even the US State
Department called the terror attack a joint operation of the LeT and
HUJI. The Haryana Police tracked down some of the material used in
the blasts as being procured from a market in Indore but the trail
soon went cold.
In
November 2008, the Maharashtra ATS told a court in Nashik that Lt Col
Purohit had procured 60 kg of RDX from Jammu & Kashmir in 2006
and a part of it was suspected to have been used in the Samjhauta
Express blasts. But the ATS subsequently failed to back its claims
with any evidence and was forced to retract. The Haryana cops
travelled to Mumbai and interrogated Purohit and other Malegaon
accused but could not find any evidence that could link them to the
Samjhauta blasts.
In
July 2010, the Samjhauta blast probe was handed over to the National
Investigating Agency (NIA). Though it still leaves some questions and
loose ends, Aseemanand’s confession now joins many other dots in
relation to the Samjhauta Express.
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The massacre of Hindu devotees at the
Akshardham temple by Islamist bombers in 2002 was the first real
kindle for the retaliatory attacks
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“In
February 2007,” Aseemanand told the magistrate, “Riteshwar and Joshi
came on a motorbike to a Lord Shiva temple in a place called Balpur.
As we had fixed this place for our meeting, I was already there,
waiting for the two. Joshi told me in the next two days there would
be a piece of good news and I should keep a tab on the newspapers.
After the meeting I came back to Shabri Dham and Joshi and Riteshwar
went their way. After a couple of days I went to meet Riteshwar at
his Valsad residence. Joshi and Pragya were already present there.
The Samjhauta Express blasts had happened. I asked Joshi how he was
present there while Samjhauta had already happened in Haryana. Joshi
replied that the blasts were done by his men.”
“In
the same meeting,” Aseemanand continues, “Joshi took Rs. 40,000 from
me to carry out the blasts in Hyderabad. A few months later, Joshi
telephoned me and told me to keep a tab on the newspapers as some
good news was in the offing. In a few days the news of the Mecca
Masjid blast appeared in the papers. After 7-8 days, Joshi came to
Shabri Dham and brought a Telegu newspaper with him. It had a picture
of the blast. I told Joshi that in the papers it had appeared that
some Muslim boys had been rounded up for the blast. But Joshi replied
it was done by our people.”
LIKE
IN the case of the 2006
Malegaon blast, 17 May 2007 was a Friday. At 1.30 pm, as over 4,000
Muslims assembled to offer their Friday prayers at the iconic Mecca
Masjid, situated near the Charminar in the old city of Hyderabad, a
bomb went off near the Wazu Khana (fountain) meant for doing wazu
(ablution before prayers) inside the mosque.
Another
IED contained in a blue rexine bag was found hanging near the
door-way at the northern end of the mosque. Miraculously, this bomb
had not exploded. With no substantive clue emerging from the blast
investigation, in a cynical move, the Hyderabad police launched a
mop-up operation against local Muslim boys, who were associated with
Ahle Hadess, the doggedly fundamentalist sect among Sunni Muslims.
Friends and family members of some known local Muslim extremists like
Shahid Bilal, who had fled to Pakistan, were also rounded up. In a
span of two weeks, over three dozen boys from Malakpet and Saidabaad
were picked up and tortured. However, when the police failed to link
them to the Mecca Masjid case, they registered three separate bogus
cases and implicated the detainees in these cases.
On
9 June 2007, the CBI took over the investigation into the Mecca
Masjid case.
A
few months later, on 11 October 2007, during the month of Ramzan, at
6.15 pm, as Muslim devotees had begun their iftaar at Ajmer Sharif
dargah, a powerful bomb went off near a tree in the compound, killing
three people and injuring over a dozen. Investigators found one more
unexploded IED at the site.
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Swami says, ‘Joshi told me to keep a tab on the
papers as some good news was in the offing. Soon after, news of
the Mecca Masjid blast appeared’
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According
to Aseemanand, this blast had been executed by Muslim boys provided
by Indresh Kumar. “A couple of days after the Ajmer blast Joshi came
to see me. He was accompanied by two men named Raj and Mehul who had
also visited Shabri Dham on previous occasions. Joshi claimed his men
had perpetrated the blast and he was also present at Ajmer Dargah at
the time of the blast. He said that Indresh had provided him two
Muslim boys to plant the bomb. I told Joshi that if the Muslim boys
get caught, Indresh would get exposed. I also told Joshi that Indresh
might get him killed and told him to stay at Shabri Dham. Joshi then
told me that Raj and Mehul were wanted in the Baroda Best Bakery case
(12 Muslims were killed by rioters in Best Bakery in Gujarat 2002). I
told Joshi not to keep Raj and Mehul at the ashram as it would not be
safe for them to stay in Gujarat. Joshi, along with the two men, left
for Dewas the next day,” said Aseemanand.
Barely
two months later, on 29 December 2007, in a sudden twist,
Aseemanand’s fears came true. Sunil Joshi was mysteriously murdered
outside his house in Dewas, Madhya Pradesh. His family claimed he had
been murdered by his own organisation. After her arrest, Sadhvi
Pragya Thakur also suggested this. But the Madhya Pradesh Police
failed to solve the case and filed a closure report in the court.
At
the end of December 2010 though, acting on fresh leads, the Madhya
Pradesh police finally accepted that Joshi had been murdered by his
own friends in the RSS. They charged Mayank, Harshad Solanki, Mehul
and Mohan from Gujarat, Anand Raj Katare from Indore and Vasudev Parmar
from Dewas with Joshi’s murder. While Mehul and Mohan are still on
the run, Solanki was brought before the Dewas court where he
confessed to the murder. However, even these arrests don’t join all
the dots. The police claim internal rivalry as the motive for the
murder. The CBI, though, believes the real motive behind Joshi’s
murder was to silence him. Joshi knew too much about the terror
conspiracy and his masters were perhaps wary that they might get
exposed.
Sunil
Joshi’s murder leaves many unanswered questions. If he was one of the
key figures in the terror conspiracy, as many of those arrested
testify that he was, why would his comrades want to bump him off? If
he was a protégé of Indresh Kumar, acting on his orders and with his
sanction, why would his mentor want him dead? What could have created
a rift or fallout between all of them? The murder suggests a murky
and inexplicable factionalism within the sinister grouping.
With
Joshi dead and much of Aseemanand’s confession based on things Joshi
had told him about the blasts, it might seem that Aseemanand’s
confession runs thin in certain portions and is, therefore, of uneven
consequence. But Joshi was not the only piece in the puzzle.
Aseemanand’s confession is powerful because it implicates himself at every
juncture and points to a network of Hindutva pracharaks, who not only
participated in the terror plots but were moved around and sheltered
by sections of the organisation while they were on the run.
Investigators believe that the arrests of Kalsangra and Dange would
provide the missing pieces of the puzzle.
Joshi’s
death didn’t mean the end of the horrific blasts — at least from the
ultra-Hindutva side. The terror infrastructure he had created along
with a few other RSS men continued to function.
ASEEMANAND
CONFESSED coming into contact with
the shadowy saffron terror outfit Abhinav Bharat in January 2007. Col
Purohit was one of the founder members of the outfit. Aseemanand has
confessed to proposing more terror strikes in a meeting of Abhinav
Bharat held at Bhopal in April 2008. Sadhvi Pragya, Bharat Riteshwar,
Col Purohit and Dayanand Pandey were also present in the meeting. “I
participated in many Abhinav Bharat meetings and proposed to carry
out more terror strikes,” Aseemanand told the magistrate.
On
29 September 2008, horror struck again. During Islam’s holy month of
Ramzan, an IED went off at Bhikku Chowk, a Muslim neighbourhood in
Malegaon. The bomb was concealed in a motorcycle parked in front of a
locked office of SIMI. Given the paranoia that had grown around
Islamist terror, it had become an accepted maxim that members of SIMI
were behind every blast. No proof was ever required. Placing a bomb
in front of their office, therefore, was an act of deadly symbolism
for the Hindutva outfits.
A
similar bomb blast was triggered almost simultaneously hundreds of
miles away in a small town called Modasa in Gujarat. Like in
Malegaon, the blast took place in a Muslim colony named Sukka Bazaar,
outside a mosque when special Ramzan prayers were being offered. Like
in Malegaon, the bomb was again concealed in a motorcycle. The two
blasts were separated by a gap of five minutes.
The
Malgeaon blast killed seven Muslims, including a three-year-old boy.
The Modasa blast resulted in the death of a 15-year-old boy. Several
others were injured.
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‘I told my comrades that since the Nizam had
wanted to opt for Pakistan during Partition, Hyderabad was also a
fair target for us,’ the Swami said
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It
is a measure of the deep-seated bias that had crept into the Indian
justice system that even when deadly blasts went off in the midst of
Muslim neighbourhoods and mosques, Muslim boys were still
automatically blamed for them. It was beyond anyone’s imagination
that Hindutva groups could be behind the inhuman acts.
But
as Aseemanand says, “Sometime in October 2008, Dange phoned me and
said he wanted to come to Shabri Dham and stay there for a few days.
I told him that since I was setting out for Nadiad (Gujarat), it
would not be a good idea for him to stay there in my absence. Then
Dange requested me to pick him up from a place called Vyara and drop
him to Baroda which was on the way to Nadiad. I picked up Dange from
Vyara bus stop in my Santro car. He was accompanied by Ramji
Kalsangra. Both were carrying two or three bags stuffed with some
heavy objects. They told me they were coming from Maharashtra. I
dropped them at Rajpipla junction at Baroda. I later realised that it
was just a day after the Malegaon blast,” said Aseemanand, before
concluding his statement. His confession further corroborates the
evidence put together by Karkare.
After
the Maharashtra ATS arrested Sadhvi Pragya in connection with the
2008 Malegaon blast, Aseemanand went absconding. He was finally
arrested by the CBI from Haridwar on 19 November 2010.
THE
EMERGENCE of Hindutva terror does
not leach away the horror of Islamist terror attacks on places like
the Akshardham temple, Sankatmochan mandir and German Bakery in Pune,
amongst others. But Aseemanand’s confession will raise many
uncomfortable questions for the RSS. It is no one’s case that the
actions of a few tars an entire organisation. But there are urgent
questions the RSS needs to confront within itself. And answer to the
nation.
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Given the growing evidence about the
involvement of RSS pracharaks in a series of terror blasts, how
will the RSS leadership respond?
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Many
of these terror blasts display a high degree of sophistication in the
planning and devices used, with RDX and complex bomb designs being
deployed in several of them. Given that most of the foot-soldiers
accused for these blasts are of very humble backgrounds, is it
possible that they could execute these blasts without support and
sanction from the top? Given the strictly hierarchical and
disciplined nature of the organisation, is it possible that they were
acting without the knowledge of their superiors? Most crucially,
given the gathering evidence about the involvement of several RSS
pracharaks and other affiliates in this series of terror blasts, how
will the RSS leadership respond? If it is true that some members of
their organisation have turned rogue, will they seek the most
stringent punishment for them? The Hindutva worldview may be
politically opposed to minority rights, but will it go far enough to
watch some of its members drag the country further down the suicidal
course of competitive terrorism between Islamist and Hindutva
extremists? Or will it opt for the saner option of a cleansing
within.
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