By IANS,
New Delhi : Vishwa Hindu Parishad general secretary Pravin Togadia denied funding an organisation suspected to be involved in the Malegaon bomb blast even as VHP leader Acharya Giriraj Kishore accused the government and the Congress chief of conspiring against them.
“The (United Progressive Alliance) government and (UPA chairperson) Sonia Gandhi are misusing the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) for framing charges against our leaders,” VHP senior vice-president Giriraj Kishore told reporters.
Rejecting media reports that Malegaon blast accused Lt. Col. Prasad Purohit had told investigators that Togadia was involved in the formation and funding of the Abhinav Bharat, Kishore said: “There is no truth in it… It is baseless.”
“We don’t have any link with the Abhinav Bharat. It (allegation) is altogether wrong,” Kishore told IANS.
Purohit, the first serving army officer arrested on terror charges, has been accused of masterminding the Sep 29 bomb blast in Maharashtra town of Malegaon, in which six people were killed.
A section of the media Monday said Purohit had told the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) that Togadia was involved in the formation and funding of the Abhinav Bharat, a radical Hindutva organisation. The CBI had interrogated Purohit during its investigations into the May 18, 2007, blast at Hyderabad’s Mecca Masjid.
Kishore said: “She (Sonia) is doing all these things. The Shankaracharya (Kanchi seer who was arrested in connection with a murder case in Tamil Nadu in 2004-05) was the first victim.”
“The government is using the CBI as a political weapon,” he alleged.
Meanwhile, Togadia’s advocate Dipak Shukla said in a statement: “My client firmly denies any funding or involvement related to Abhinav Bharat or any of their affiliated or non-affiliated people in any of their activities.”
Shukla threatened to take legal action against those who are trying to drag Togadia’s name in the Malegaon blast case.
“Any attempt by any electronic media, print media, public or private communicators, government or private agency or anyone whosoever to spread the above or any such malafide, false, derogatory and criminally defamatory lies about my client will attract civil and criminal legal action as deemed fit,” he said.
“Any political party or politician found to be publicly or privately indulging in spreading the above natured malafide lies about my client will also attract suitable civil and criminal legal action as deemed fit and also will be liable to compensate the damages caused to my client, his organisation, family and family businesses,” Shukla said.