21.1.09

The Malegaon Story


It was a conspiracy that had taken over seven months and it result in the September 29 Malegaon blast. The objectives were actually much larger and far reaching than the six lives it claimed. According to the charge sheet filed by the Maharshtra ATS in the case, the 14 conspirators of the terror attack had planned to take over the country and establish a Hindu Rashtra — with its own constitution and a saffron national flag. At the helm of affairs of this conspiracy is a serving army officer — Lt Col Prasad Srikant Purohit, who had floated a Hindu radical group — Abhinav Bharat — on February 9, 2007. The intention of the organisation, says the charge sheet, was to “propagate a separate Hindu Rashtra with its own constitution and aims, and with Bharat Swarajya, Surajya, Suraksha in its preamble.” It adds that members of “this organised crime syndicate wanted to adopt a national flag i.e. solo-themed saffron flag with a golden border. The length of the flag would be twice its breadth with an ancient golden torch (bhagwa dhwaj).” The conspiracy, according to the charge sheet, was hatched through several meetings held between January 2008 and September 2008 at Faridabad, Kolkata, Bhopal, Jabalpur, Indore and Nashik. The first meeting was held on January 25-26 at Faridabad in which Purohit, in the presence of other accused in the case, said he would provide explosives for the blast. After a few meetings on spreading terror among the Muslim community, in a crucial meeting held in Bhopal on April 11, 12, 2008, Malegaon was chosen as the target. The meeting was attended by Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Ramesh Upadhyay, Sameer Kulkarni, Purohit, Pande and Sudhakar Chaturvedi, all accused in the case. In the meet it was decided “to take revenge against Muslims in Malegaon by exploding bombs in a thickly populated area”. It was at this meet that Pragya agreed to provide two men, her close associates, to execute the blasts. On June 11, 2008, another meeting was held at Circuit House in Indore. Here, Pragya introduced Ramji alias Ramchandra Kalsangra and Sandeep Dange, the absconding accused who planted the bomb, to Pandey and assured that they would do the job well. In another meeting next month in Indore, Pragya directed Pandey to ask Purohit to hand over the explosives to Ramji and Dange. On August 3, 2008, in a meeting held at the dharmashala of Mahakaleshwar temple in Ujjain, Purohit was given the responsibility of procuring RDX and providing it to Ramji for the blast. At the same meeting, Purohit arranged to train Ramji and Dange in exploding bombs. For this, he asked another accused Rakesh Dhawade, who is a trained expert in handling bombs and making improvised explosive devices, to give the explosives to and train Ramji and Dange. Both had visited and stayed in Pune between August 9 and 11, 2008 for the purpose. The RDX that Purohit provided to the planters of the bomb had been brought by him from Kashmir while he was returning after completing his posting there. He had stored it in a cupboard in his house and later provided it to Ramji and others for making the bomb. After this, Purohit arranged for a forged arms licence and entry pass to Deolali camp area in Nashik for accused Sudhakar Chaturvedi. Meanwhile, in September 2008, another accused, identified as Pravin Mutalik, joined the group and was reported to be staying at Chaturvedi’s residence in Deolali from September 22, 2008 with Ramji, who had brought a golden LML Freedom bike with him. It was here that Ramji, Dange and Mutalik assembled the bomb. The trio later used the same bike to plant the bomb near Bhiku Chowk in Central Malegaon and successfully exploded it killing six people and injuring over a hundred. There were several financial transactions that took place to facilitate the conspiracy in terms of procuring explosives and firearms. According to the charge sheet, Purohit collected around Rs 21 lakh for himself and his organisation Abhinav Bharat. The amount was given to the organisation’s treasurer, Ajay Rahirkar, an accused in the case. Rahirkar in turn disbursed the amount among various accused on the directions of Purohit for furtherance of their conspiracy. Of this, Purohit had taken Rs 1 lakh to procure hand grenades. He further paid Rs 2.5 lakh to a builder in Nashik to buy a bungalow for himself. He also gave Rs 2.25 lakh to Dhawade to procure explosives and arrange for training for the planters of the bomb. Dhawde was also paid Rs 3.20 lakh by Rahirkar for weapons and cartridges.

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