By IANS,
Mumbai : The mastermind behind the Malegaon blast is serving Indian Army officer Lt. Col. Prasad S. Purohit whose aim was to establish a “Hindu nation” by seeking the help of Israel, a high-ranking police official said here Tuesday.
“He wanted to seek the help of Israel to further his cause since he felt that the Indian constitution was not enough to tackle what was happening in the country,” Mumbai Police’s Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief K.P. Raghuvanshi told reporters.
His comments before the media came after the ATS wrapped up the probe into the Malegaon blast which killed six people Sep 29 last year. The investigating agency filed a 5,250-plus page charge sheet against the 11 main accused under the Special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
The charge sheet, with over 400 witnesses, also names three wanted suspects as “absconders”.
Raghuvanshi said of the 11 persons arrested so far, the five key players includsed: Purohit, a former Military Intelligence (MI) official, the mastermind who founded Abhinav Bharat; Sadhvi Pragnya Singh Thakur alias Purnachetananadagiri, who mobilised the foot-soldiers; the motivator of the conspiracy Dayanand Pandey alias Sudhakar Udhavbhan Dhardiwedi alias Amritanandadev Teerth, who is self-proclaimed ‘Shankaracharya’ (top religious head).
Aiding them was the low-profile arms collector Rakesh Dhawade who helped organise the training aspects for carrying out the blasts and Ajay Rahirkar, the fund-raiser for the terror attack.
The ATS chief said RDX was procured when Purohit was serving in Jammu and Kashmir. It was later kept in Pune.
“This followed a series of conspiracy meetings for carrying out the blast, in places like Faridabad, Ujjain, Bhopal and Pune,” Raghuvanshi said.
The Abhinav Bharat managed to garner over Rs. 2.1 million for the terror attacks and the ATS has also questioned some of the donors to the cause.
To a query whether the group planned to carry out more blasts in Muslim-dominated pockets in the country, Raghuvanshi replied in the negative.
“So far we do not have any such evidence. Soon after the Malegaon blast, they came on our radar and they did not get an opportunity to regroup,” he said.