The CBI says Kalsangra, an Abhinav Bharat activist, was introduced to Gupta by Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and Sunil Joshi. Kalsangra's role becomes crucial since all the accused who are in custody have told their interrogators that he was the man who planted the bomb at Malegaon
Investigators probing the acts of terror allegedly carried out by right-wing groups at Malegaon, Ajmer and Hyderabad are now looking for one Swami Aseemanand and his accomplice.The police have been looking for Swami Aseemanand since the Mumbai Anti-Terrorism Squad arrested Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur in October 2009 in connection with the Malegaon blasts. The ATS had picked up incriminating intercepts of his conversation with the Sadhvi.
Narendra Modi seems to prefer that Hindu strongman image remain tucked in reserve, to only come when called; life's been more complicated.
He had not played any role in the blast, Purohit had said, adding that he was in jail for the last seven years without trial.
'Rather than an outcome of 'pro-incumbency', the exit poll results betray a completely lackadaisical approach of the Opposition parties.' 'While a new kind of politics was on display for the past five years, they were still mired in their old-style methods which will cost them the election,' predicts Utkarsh Mishra.
The National Investigation Agency is well aware that it does not have a strong case in hand to keep the 2006 Malegaon blast case accused behind bars. Vicky Nanjappa reports
Seven accused in the Malegaon blast case, including Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, were today remanded in judicial custody till December 3 by a MCOCA court.
The Maharashtra Anti-terror Squad made a very important arrest in the Malegaon blast case late Monday night. Praveen Muthalik, who is said to be one of the executors of the blast was arrested and later remanded in police custody till February 14. He had been absconding for nearly two years.
Sadhvi Pragya's statements will be crucial to the Malegaon investigation. Her advocate Ganesh Sovani, however, points out that they have not decided as of yet to challenge CBI's re-investigation of the case.
A Supreme Court judge on Friday recused from hearing a plea against removal of Special Public Prosecutor by NIA in the 2008 Malegaon blasts case, saying that he had represented certain accused in the matter.
All the 11 accused in Malegaon blast case, including Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and Lt Col Prasad Purohit, were today remanded to judicial custody till January 20 by a special MCOCA court here.
The court transferred the custody of Samir Kulkarni, an accused in the case and one of the co-founders of right-wing group Abhinav Bharat, to the Madhya Pradesh police.
Dr Ram Puniyani, member of the EKTA, Committee for Communal Amity, Mumbai, speaks about the arrests of Muslim youth in Maharashtra.
The special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act court on Tuesday remanded Ajay Rahirkar, accused in the September 29 Malegaon blast and the treasurer of right wing group Abhinav Bharat, to police custody till December 20. Eight other accused including prime accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur were sent to judicial custody till December 29. The prosecution had sought Rahirkar's custody on the grounds that Rahirkar transferred funds from Abhinav Bharat's treasury.
Throwing its weight behind the Malegaon blast accused, including sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, a group of advocates in Sonepat have set up a 17-member lawyers committee to provide legal assistance to them. The Hindu Unification Movement Legal and Welfare Association will provide legal assistance to the sadhvi and other accused, according to Bhupeshwar Dayal Gaur, a founder-member of the association.
Maharashtra's Anti-Terrorism Squad is considering pressing charges under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act against all the nine accused in the Malegaon blast case, including Lieutenant Colonel Shrikant Prasad Purohit and Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur.The ATS is investigating transfer of funds from the bank account of Lt. Col. Purohit, the first serving army officer to be arrested in the case, to Rahirkar and others for execution of the alleged conspiracy.
Three accused in the September 29 Malegaon blast on Saturday underwent polygraph tests at the Kalina Forensic Science Laboratory.
Nashik-based Bhonsalal Military School (BMS) on Friday said no meeting took place in the institution among retired major Ramesh Shivji Upadhyay, Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and a serving lieutanant Colonel, who have been interrogated in connection with the Malegaon blasts.
'When the story of Elections 2019 is told by an independent writer, the BJP's role in lowering electoral standards will be etched in indelible ink,' says Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, one of the prime accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, on Tuesday approached the special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act court seeking home food alleging that she is being served non-vegetarian food in the prison.
Apparently distancing itself from the Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur episode, the Hindu Mahasabha has said it does not support terrorism by anyone and accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of encashing on Hindu sentiments by coming out in support of the Malegaon blast accused."The BJP is encashing on religious sentiments of Hindus again for their politics. Earlier they had encashed on the Ram janmabhoomi issue and this time it wants to encash on Malegaon," the ABHM said.
Minister of State for Home Affairs in the Prime Minister's Office Prithviraj Chavan told newsmen in New Delhi that there was no political vendetta by the Mumbai Anti-Terrorism Squad investigating the Malegoan blasts in which sadhavi Pragya Singh Thakur and Lieutenant Colonel Srikant Purohit and some others have been picked up for interrogation.
Stating that the Shiv Sena was ready to provide the best lawyers to defend Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, arrested in connection with the Malegaon blast, Sena chief Bal Thackeray on Monday ridiculed Congress Member of Parliament Gurudas Kamat, who has demanded his arrest for backing her. "Whenever Congressmen have feats of Muslim appeasement, they dream of my arrest," Thackeray said in an editorial in the Sena mouthpiece Saamana.
Pragya Singh Thakur, the sadhvi arrested in connection with Malegaon bomb blasts, will undergo polygraph, brain mapping and narco tests, a government lawyer said on Monday.
Police were probing the links of right-wing group Sanatan Saunstha with the blast that took place at 9.30 pm on Friday night when explosives kept in a scooter went off on a busy street in Margao, 30 km from Panaji.
Two persons were critically injured and three vehicles gutted when an explosive hidden in a scooter went off on a busy street in the heart of Margao town, 30 km from Panaji.
'Certainly if Advani had agreed to Vajpayee in sacking Modi, then we would never have been talking of Modi today.'
'One does not understand why you should launch your attack against the Constitution, against Gandhiji, against the Left and Congress regimes at a moment when the Hindutva regime needs such attacks against them.' 'By doing so, don't you think you are playing into the hands of Hindutva forces?', Mohammad Sajjad, who teaches history at Aligarh Muslim University, asks Sharjeel Imam who was arrested on charges of sedition on Tuesday, January 28.
Malegaon blast prime accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur had met the wanted accused Ramji Kalsangra two days before her arrest, and expressed apprehensions over police tracing the scooter used in the explosion to her, according to a witness statement.
Pakistan's demand to hand over Lt Colonel Purohit in connection with the Samjahutha Express blast will turn out to be a damp squib considering the fact that the chargesheet filed by the Mumbai ATS makes no mention of the case.
"I will rather die than get admitted in the J J hospital," is what Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, an accused in the Malegaon blasts case had to say.
The Anti Terrorism Squad on Wednesday told the MCOCA court hearing the case into the September 2008 Malegaon blast that it has video recordings of a meeting in which the blast accused were present
Special counsel for ATS Ajay Misar argued before the court that since investigation into the blast was still on, the judicial remand of the accused should be extended.
Public prosecutor Ajay Mishra said the crime committed by the three was a "serious offence" and they were booked under charges of murder, attempt to murder and voluntarily causing grievous hurt under IPC Sections 302, 307 and 326 respectively
When the HC asked the NIA to produce the transcript of the recording of the Bhopal meeting, the agency said it was not aware if it existed.
Six people were killed and over 100 injured when an explosive device strapped on a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Malegaon, a town about 200 km from Mumbai in north Maharashtra, on September 29, 2008.
BJP said Gandhi's remarks were condemnable and he should apologise in the House.
The Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind, an 89-year old largest such Islamic body in the country that issued a 'fatwa' signed by 6,000 Muslim clerics in Hyderabad ten days ago against terrorism, on Monday moved the Supreme Court for release of a large number of Muslim youths held in connections with blasts in Malegaon in 2001, 2006 and 2008.
In a judgment that seeks to define the role of the National Investigation Agency, the Bombay high court has ruled that as a matter of general rule the agency cannot be prohibited from carrying out fresh investigations or re-investigations in specific cases.
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