By Rehan Ansari, TwoCircles.net,
Mumbai: Praveen Venaktesh Takalki alias Praveen Mutalik, 32, a member of Abhinav Bharat and an absconding accused in the Malegaon blast, 2008, case was arrested on Monday, 1st of February by the Maharashtra ATS. State ATS sources said that Mutalik was picked up from Karnataka and was then produced before the special MCOCA court on Tuesday. He has been remanded in police custody till 14th February.
Mutalik’s arrest is the first arrest after the National Investigative Agency announced cash award for locating three accused including Sandeep Dange alias Parmanand, Ramchandra Kalsangra alias Ramji alias Vishnu Patel. Dange and Kalsangra are wanted by the Agency regarding the bomb blast in Attari Express (popularly known as Samjhauta Express) in February 2007.
It is important to mention here that Dange and Kalsangra are also accused in Malegaon 2008 blasts.
Personal secretary of Col. Purohit, Praveen Mutalik is one of the 3 accused in this case who have been charged with planning and conspiring for the Bhiku Chowk blast, in Malegaon in 2008, where seven people were killed. He joined Abhinav Bharat in 2006 and was reportedly present in the planning meetings for the blast.
On September, 28, Col. Purohit, Sudhakar Chaturvedi and Praveen Mutalik stayed in Nasik at the rented house of Sudhakar. They prepared bomb there, which was later placed at Bhiku Chowk in Malegaon in 2008. ATS found the keys of the same room from Praveen Mutalik.
“A Chemical Engineer by profession, Mutalik was in contact with other two absconding accused who will be arrested soon,” said the state ATS chief Rakesh Maria.
Mutalik’s arrest is the 12th arrest in the Malegaon, 2008, blast case. Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Col. Purohit , Swami Dayanad Pande, Sudhakar Chaturvedi, Rakesh Dharve are some of the accused, arrested earlier in this case.
Regarding the connections of the case with Swami Aseemanand’s confession, Maria said, “We are waiting to get the certified copy of his statement and then we will decide about the next step.”
Now the question arises, why didn’t the Maharashtra ATS look into Malegaon Blast 2006, case particularly after the confession of Swami Aseemanand?