By Abdul Hameed, TwoCircles.net,
Mumbai: Amidst fear that Malegaon blast probe may go slow after Hemant Karkare’s death the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has decided to question three more army men regarding the blast case.
The ATS that has already arrested Lt. Col. Shrikant Prasad Purohit in September 29 Malegaon blast case reportedly questioned on Monday three of his subordinates, a JCO (junior commissioned officer) and two NCOs (non-commissioned officers).
Noticeably, they are not being interrogated on the basis of any suspicion. But the ATS wants to collect more information about Purohit. They had worked under Purohit in the military intelligence unit at Deolali and thereby might be aware of Purohit’s movements and meetings with various people.
‘The three had served under Lt. Col. Prasad Shrikant Purohit and are not suspects in the case. They are being questioned as police want to gather more information on Purohit, ‘a senior army official was quoted as saying.
According to media reports it is suspected that Purohit had directed the JCO to book a place, which was later used for some training by right-wing activists, the trio are being interrogated in the Mumbai cantonment area, not in police custody.
Purohit was arrested from Pachmarchi in early November after his name emerged in the interrogation of Pragya Singh Thakur’s associates, Shyam Bhavarlal Sahu and Shiv Narain Singh. He is said to be associated with Abhinav Bharat, a radical Hindu right-wing militant group blamed for the Malegaon blasts. Purohit’s arrest triggered fears that the radical Hindu right-wing had penetrated in the armed forces.
The police suspect about Purohit to have helped the accused Pragya Thakur, retired army major Ramesh Upadhyaya and his associate Sharad Kulkarni to procure the explosives used in the blast.
The ATS is said to be in the possession of transcripts of a few telephonic conversations and SMSes between the retired and serving army officers, regarding the blast.
Meanwhile, the army, too, has been questioning officers who were ‘in regular contact’ with Purohit or had served with him in his earlier posting at Deolali and Nashik as an army Liaison Unit (LU) officer