By Abdul Hameed, TwoCircles.net,
Mumbai: Malegaon blast accused, self-proclaimed mahant Dayanand Pandey has reportedly told the police during interrogation that the September 29 blast was carried out on the direction of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur.
He has also expressed his desire to speak to co-accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur to convince her to take the responsibility of the attack, the police have claimed.
Pandey was arrested on November 14 for plotting the September 29 Malegaon blast which killed six persons. The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has so far arrested 11 persons including Sadhvi Pragya, Lt. Colonel Purohit and Mahant Dayanand Pandey belonging to Hindutva outfits in this case.
Noticeably the ATS last month had imposed MCOCA on those arrested in the Malegaon blast case.
I’m not involved in the Malegaon blast case. Let me talk to her (Pragya). I will tell her to take the responsibility so that other innocent persons arrested in this case could be released, Pandey is believed to have told the police during the interrogation.
In Malegaon blast that occurred two before Eid the motor bike of Pragya was used. The bike had led the investigating agencies to Pragya and thus to Hindutva terrorists. This created a great trouble among saffron outfits and they had threatened to kill the ATS chief Hemant Karkare who was unveiling their true face.
The police claimed to have records of Pandey’s meetings with Thakur and arrested Lt Colonel Prasad Shrikant Purohit. Purohit, the co-founder of Abhinav Bharat, the outfit suspected to have financed Malegaon blast, had approached Pandey for his help.
‘It was difficult for Purohit to bring 11 like-minded persons together. He approached Pandey and requested him to join hands with him since Pandey had thousands of followers in the country,’ said the officer.
The police are trying to collect more information about the blast case during interrogation of Pandey.