‘Swami held by CBI has Malegaon links’

MECCA MASJID EXPLOSION

Mateen Hafeez TNN

Mumbai: Swami Asimanand, arrested by the CBI in connection with the blast at the Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad, had close links with the suspects in the 2008 Malegaon explosion case, investigators said. Asimanand had reportedly attended several meetings held in Nashik’s Bhonsala Military School, Bhopal and Faridabad where the conspiracy of the Malegaon blast was hatched.

Asimanand alias Jatin Chatterjee alias Swami Omkarnath (59) was arrested in Haridwar early on Friday. Ajay Pandey, additional chief metropolitan magistrate in Haridwar, allowed the plea of the CBI to produce him in a court in Hyderabad within 48 hours of the arrest, in connection with the Mecca Masjid explosion.

“An ideologue of Abhinav Bharat, Asimanand had been in touch with Malegaon blast arrested accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur over cellphone and the CBI has found several clues to it. He used his driver’s phone when he had to contact people to spread terrorism in the country,” said a police official. “When a meeting for the selection of Abhinav Bharat’s office bearer was held in Bhopal in April 2007 and a plot was hatched to unleash terror on Muslims, Asimanand was present there.”

Though the ATS charge sheet had not mentioned him as a wanted accused, a source said he was the main link between the 2008 Malegaon blast accused, members of Sanatan Sanstha who planted a bomb in Goa and the accused of the Ajmer shrine as well as that of the Mecca Masjid blasts. “It was Asimanand who had first called up Lt Col Prasad Purohit in 2007 and informed him that one of their sympathizers, Sunil Joshi, was shot in Madhya Pradesh. Purohit has also admitted to his conversation with Asimanand,” said the official.


The Times of India, November 20, 2010