The arrests the NIA has made seems to be right out of a Crime Patrol episode. Two sadhus, putting up at two different ashrams in Chitrakoot, Ujjain were booked to perform pujas at designated places and both turned up, unsuspecting that their cover had been blown, only to be nabbed by the police. These men were the recently arrested Dhan Singh and Samander Singh Pehelwan. It appears that they operate from Madhya Pradesh as three more men were picked up from different parts and three key planners—Ramji Kalsangra, Sandeep Dange and Amit Chauhan, are still absconding. They have confessed to planning bomb attacks in a house in Nanded.
According to NIA’s interrogations, RSS leader Indresh Kumar attended a meeting in Jaipur in 2005 and it was after this meeting that Devender Gupta, Lokesh Sharma and Sunil Joshi took the responsibility of arranging mobile phones and SIM cards for all subsequent attacks.
The group purchased 11 SIM cards from two different states, Asansol in West Bengal and Jamtara in Jharkhand, under the name Babu Lal Yadav and to escape detection, the four mobile phones used in the Mecca Masjid and Ajmer Dargah blasts were bought from four different states. The bomb-making training was given by Sunil Joshi, Kalsangra, Sandeep Dange and Amit Chauhan, all associated with various Hindu right-wing terror organisations. The men have expressed strong anti-minority feelings and hence the membership of right-wing organizations.
Lokesh Sharma and Devender Gupta’s statements led to the arrest of Swami Aseemananda, who told the NIA that Indresh Kumar funded the operations while Sunil Joshi planned the terror attacks. Interrogation of the arrested bombers has revealed that the bombs were ferried in a car for the Ajmer blasts, while for the Samjhauta and the 2006 Malegaon blasts, the bombs and their carriers travelled by train. Although Aseemananda retracted his statements, his confession which helped nine innocent Muslim youth, who had been arrested for the 2006 Malegaon blasts, secure bail.
In June 2011 the NIA filed a chargesheet against Aseemanand, Sunil Joshi, Lokesh Sharma, Sandeep Dange and Ramchandra Kalsangra for their role in the 2007 Samjhauta Express blasts, said that Sandeep Dange, the bomb-maker had been roped in as SIM card bombs could not be relied upon for too many blasts.
After Aseemanand retracted his statement, investigators arrested Kamal Chauhan in February last year. Kamal told investigators about the explosives used, the training, team members and the name of others who were with him while he planted explosives on the train.
On February 18, 2007, four suitcases with bombs were placed in unreserved compartments on the Samjhauta Express, of which two exploded while the train was near Panipat in Haryana. The third suitcase exploded while it was being defused and the fourth was recovered unexploded on the tracks near the 15th compartment of the train.
Recently, at a hearing in Bhopal court, the NIA produced the murder weapon it seized which was used to kill Pracharak Sunil Joshi. The mystery was unraveled by the Rajasthan ATS which arrested Lokesh Sharma and Devender Gupta investigating the Ajmer blast case. And Samander, arrested last year confessed he had directions from Lokesh Sharma to fire at Joshi. Interrogations have revealed that Samander fired the first shot, after the pistol conked off, he fired four shots using a country-made weapon.
It has also been found that various terror camps were organized, one in Dewas, Madhya Pradesh in 2006 where they participated with their air pistols and .32 bore pistols and got their training in bomb-making and also got a demonstration of blasts on nearby hillock.
At another terror camp, at Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range in Delhi, an Indian army man in uniform used to be present but his identity has not been established as yet.
Rajender, in NIA custody, told investigators that he and Lokesh shot Delhi professor Geelani on February 8, 2005 while Geelani was on his way to meet his lawyer, Nandita Haskar. The Delhi University teacher had suffered serious injuries and had told media persons that the Delhi Police neither contacted him nor investigated the attack.
Lokesh Sharma and Choudhary travelled to Delhi several times to keep a watch on him, carrying out instructions of Pracharak Sunil Joshi.
Cases:
- Killing of a nun in Indore (2001)
- Congress leader Pyar Singh Ninama and his son’s murder (2003)
- Jammu and Kashmir mosque bomb blasts (2004)
- Shooting at SAR Geelani in 2005
- Samjhauta express bomb blasts (2006)
- Killed RSS local chief Sunil Joshi (2007)
- Malegaon blasts (2006 and 2008)
- Ajmer Shareef bomb blasts (2007)
- Mecca Masjid, Hyderabad blasts (2007)
- Modasa, Gujarat blasts (2008)
- Murder of Pyar Singh Ninama murder’s witness (2008)
Known figures involved:
- Sadhvi Pragya Thakur
- Swami Aseemanand (arrested by the CBI, November 2010)
- Lt. Cl. SP Purohit
- Sunil Joshi, RSS Pracharak
- Indresh Kumar, RSS leader
