Initial reports of Muthalik's interrogation make it clear that he was the man who helped with the logistics and was one among the three who planted the bombs at Malegaon.
While there is a debate still on whether Swami Aseemanand actually confessed on his own after being touched by the conduct of a former accused in the Mecca Masjid case or that he did so under duress, the fact remains that there is a ray of hope among many youths who continue to languish in jails after being implicated in the above mentioned cases.
The Central Bureau of Investigation, which is investigating the 2007 Mecca Masjid blasts that claimed 15 lives, may be close to cracking the case.
S R Darapuri, a retired Indian Police Service officer has been fighting for several innocents picked up and tortured by the police in several cases of terrorism,explains how the police force is beset with bias and what needs to be done to tackle it.
There is a link among the blasts carried out at Ajmer Dargah, Mecca Masjid and Malegaon with self-styled right-wing group Abhinav Bharat believed to be behind them, Central Bureau of Investigation said on Monday.
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.
A special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act court in Mumbai on Monday granted custody of Sameer Kulkarni, one of the founder-members of right-wing group Abhinav Bharat, to the Madhya Pradesh police while remanding ten Malegaon blast accused to judicial custody till January 6.The MP police had sought the custody of Kulkarni, also accused in the September 29 Malegaon blast case, for allegedly instigating a mob to attack a church in Jabalpur and setting it on fire.
Terming the invocation of Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act against them as inappropriate, Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit and Abhinav Bharat treasurer Ajay Rahirkar, both accused in the September 29 Malegaon blast case, on Saturday moved the special MCOCA court seeking bail.Purohit and Rahirkar, in their bail applications, claimed that the Anti-Terrorism Squad had no evidence linking them to the blast and that they have nothing to do with the case.
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.
A check was being done whether the business houses were aware about the end use of funds. "We have questioned some of them and we are working to ascertain as to how much of money had been handed over to the saffron outfit," a senior probe official said on the condition of anonymity. The names of the business houses were not divulged for security reasons.
The special MCOCA court on Tuesday directed the state to file its reply to the allegations of physical torture levelled by sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Lt Col Purohit and others accused in the Malegaon blast case
Aseemanand, a member of right-wing Hindu group Abhinav Bharat, has been in jail since December 2010.
She said Mahatma Gandhi had talked about disbanding the party after Independence.
A former Colonel is now being probed by the ATS for alleged links with the Malegaon blast prime accused Lt Col S P Purohit and may have extended help in training cadres of Abhinav Bharat, a little-known right wing group suspected to be involved in the conspiracy.
Pankaj Phadnis who co-founded Abinav Bharat, says that it is not his fault if the men alleged to be accomplices of arrested Sadhvi Pragnya Singh Thakur had used the name of his organisation.
It discharged three accused -- Shyam Sahu, Shivnarayan Kalsangra and Praveen Takalki -- from the case.
The National Investigation Agency on Thursday told a Mumbai court it has found no evidence to link nine Muslims arrested in the 2006 Malegaon blasts case to the terror attack, a move that could see them walk free.
Pakistan's Interior Minister on Monday alleged that Hindu "extremist groups" like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Shiv Sena are the "biggest hurdle" to normalisation of Indo-Pak ties as he asked External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to name the "forces" which she said are against good bilateral relations.
The court has asked Sadhvi Pragya Thakur to pay a surety of Rs 5 lakh and surrender her passport to the National Investigation Agency.
The court had on October 30 framed charges in the case against all the seven accused for terror activities, criminal conspiracy and murder, among others.
Judge Dinesh Gupta let off the right-wing activist and six others, giving them "benefit of doubt".
The National Investigation Agency has accused the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad of planting evidence and coercing witnesses, but its own investigation is incomplete and leaves many questions unanswered.
It is time the current leaders who swear by 'cultural nationalism', that is religion neutral, assert that Bharatiyata is at the core of our nationalism and India was never a 'Hindu Rashtra', argues Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
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.
Sadhvi, 44, was granted bail by the Bombay high court on Tuesday.
Sadhavi Pragya Thakur, the prime accused in 2008 Malegaon bomb blasts, on Wednesday sought bail in the Bombay high court on the ground that she was sick and had spent more than five years behind the bars but the prosecution opposed the relief to her saying there was evidence against her.
Jaising said that she is opposing the reopening of the 70-year-old assassination case of Mahatma and also questioned the locus of the petitioner, Mumbai-based Pankaj Phadnis, a researcher and a trustee of Abhinav Bharat.
The plea claimed that the murder probe was one of the biggest cover-ups in history.
'He has terror charges against him. And for an army officer, it's just terrible.'
'The reason I call Dadri a landmark turning point in our politics is the relatively muted response of the self-styled secular forces.' 'Top leaders of the Congress haven't even taken a padyatra to the village, just a 40 minute drive from Delhi. Lalu, Nitish, Mamata, all claimants to the secular vote, are afraid of messing with an issue involving the cow.' 'Holiness of the cow has now become as multi-partisan an issue as hostility to Pakistan,' says Shekhar Gupta.
Swami Aseemanand, an accused in 2007 Samjhauta Express blast case, was granted bail by the Punjab and Haryana high court but he is unlikely to come out of jail as he is facing a trial in two other blast cases.
The extremist outfit has a tainted past and has been entangled in different legal cases for extortion, rioting and instigating violence
'My husband will never forget the torture nor forgive those responsible for it.'
The apex court said it has imposed certain conditions on Purohit while granting bail.
The National Investigating Agency has raised questions over the Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad's handling of the Malegaon blast case.
Nathuram Godse's nephew and niece in Pune see him as a devout nationalist, not a contract killer.
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