11-16-2008, 02:29 PM
Arrested army officer Shrikant Prasad Purohit sourced over 60kg of RDX during his stint in Jammu and Kashmir and may have provided a part of it for use in explosions in Malegaon and aboard the peace train Samjhauta Express, investigators said in court today.
The revelation came when the Maharashtra anti-terrorist squad (ATS) produced the lieutenant colonel before the Nashik chief judicial magistrate for further remand.
ATS counsel Ajay Misar claimed that a Malegaon blast witness had quoted Purohit as saying he had procured 60kg of RDX during his stint in Jammu and Kashmir in 2006 and that he gave a part of it to a man named Bhagwan.
The ATS, Misar said, suspects that portions of the explosive material may have been used in last yearâs Samjhauta Express blasts and in the September 29 Malegaon explosion.
On February 18, 2007, the peace train between India and Pakistan had been rocked by twin blasts near Panipat in Haryana, killing 68 people.
A team of Haryana railway police is currently in Mumbai to interrogate Purohit.
However, sources in the Forensic Sciences Laboratory at Madhuban in Haryana, which analysed evidence from the Panipat site, said the explosive device was made up of potassium chlorate, carbon and sulphur along with diesel or petrol and magnesium wires. No RDX was used, they added.
Misar claimed Purohit had told the ATS he had thrown the RDX into the Jhelum, but the investigations indicated he had managed to transport the explosive material to his next posting in military intelligence at Deolali in Nashik.
Describing Purohit as one of the four masterminds of the Malegaon explosion that killed five persons, Misar said the ATS had found evidence linking the officer with sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and Kanpur-based religious leader Swami Amritanand alias Dayanand Pandey . He said Pandey had introduced Purohit to Malegaon bomb planter Ramji Kalsangra, who is absconding.
The court dismissed applications filed by the defence alleging illegal detention and torture in ATS custody. Purohit has been remanded in police custody till November 18.
Unquote
A considerable section of the bloggers are of the view that the entire case is a set up and the investigating agency of the State of Maharastra is engaged in a political game of discrediting some political parties and formation. They are putting up various arguments to justify their strong conviction that no Hindu can cause a Bomb blast or follow the path of terrorism. If at the end these prove to be correct it will indeed be a very welcome development at a time when violence and terrorist action is on the increase all around the globe.
At present the case of involvement of Lt Col Purohit and others in terrorist acts are still under investigation. Some of the accused may even get acquitted at the end of the trial by the competent court. However, it will be extremely childish to think that the entire investigation and arrests are all a frame up. No Civilian outfit in India has the liberty to conduct such mass scale investigation and arrests that also by involving the institution of the Indian Army, if they have absolutely no solid evidence.
India with a One Billion plus population is a Nation which is functioning. Its institutions are functioning and it is not a dead entity nor the rule of jungle prevail in that country. Therefore , ridiculing the entire Government machinery including the investigating agencies, the executive and the judiciary plus the 500+ elected representatives to Parliament can wait till the end of the investigations and also the completion of the judicial process.