09-30-2009, 04:06 AM
CBI gives clean chit to Pragya and Purohit in Nanded case<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->In a relief to former Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit and Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has given these Malegaon blast accused a clean chit in the Nanded case which the investigative agency is probing again.
A CBI officer on Monday revealed that the agency filed a supplementary chargesheet in the Nanded case last month, but only against Punebased antique arms dealer, Rakesh Dhawade.
The CBI had re-opened the Nanded case in December 2008 after the Maharashtra Anti- Terrorism Squad (ATS) arrested 11 persons, including Dhawade, Purohit and Pragya, for the Malegaon blasts and revealed a link between the Malegaon and Nanded incidents.
The ATS submitted its Malegaon chargesheet in January, implicating Dhawade for the Nanded blasts as well. Dhawade has also been charge-sheeted by the ATS for bomb blasts in the Purna mosque in Purna (Parbhani), Qadriya mosque in Jalna and the Mohammediya mosque in Parbhani.
While it took the CBI eight more months to reconfirm Dhawade's link with the Nanded case, the agency has let Purohit and Pragya go free.
This, despite the ATS chargesheet in the Malegaon case calling Dhawade the "main member of the organised crime syndicate involving all the Malegaon accused". "Dhawade was present at the oath- taking ceremony of members of Abhinav Bharat at Raigad fort in 2006 - attended by Purohit, Ajay Rahirkar , and others," reads the ATS chargesheet.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
A CBI officer on Monday revealed that the agency filed a supplementary chargesheet in the Nanded case last month, but only against Punebased antique arms dealer, Rakesh Dhawade.
The CBI had re-opened the Nanded case in December 2008 after the Maharashtra Anti- Terrorism Squad (ATS) arrested 11 persons, including Dhawade, Purohit and Pragya, for the Malegaon blasts and revealed a link between the Malegaon and Nanded incidents.
The ATS submitted its Malegaon chargesheet in January, implicating Dhawade for the Nanded blasts as well. Dhawade has also been charge-sheeted by the ATS for bomb blasts in the Purna mosque in Purna (Parbhani), Qadriya mosque in Jalna and the Mohammediya mosque in Parbhani.
While it took the CBI eight more months to reconfirm Dhawade's link with the Nanded case, the agency has let Purohit and Pragya go free.
This, despite the ATS chargesheet in the Malegaon case calling Dhawade the "main member of the organised crime syndicate involving all the Malegaon accused". "Dhawade was present at the oath- taking ceremony of members of Abhinav Bharat at Raigad fort in 2006 - attended by Purohit, Ajay Rahirkar , and others," reads the ATS chargesheet.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->