Abrar Ahmed, suspected of planting bombs in the textile town of Malegaon that killed 31 people on September 8, was arrested on Saturday by the Anti-Terrorist Squad.
The Bombay high court on Wednesday sought the reply of the Union government on a petition filed by Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, challenging the constitutional validity of the National Investigation Agency.
Syed Firdaus Ashraf explains how two cases separated by ideological motives were curiously similar on one account.
A Pune court on Friday rejected Lieutenant Colonel Shrikant Purohit's plea for an extension of his police custody in the city. Purohit's lawyer Shrikant Shivde told rediff.com that the armyman had been physically and mentally tortured by the ATS, while he was in their custody.
Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday asked the Bharatiya Janata Party to introspect on the links between the Malegaon blast suspects and its affiliates and said the government was doing a good job in containing terrorism.
Alleging that the ATS machinery was being used at the behest of the Congress, which is practicing politics of Muslim appeasement, it said, 'the arrests of cultured and educated individuals in connection with the Malegaon blasts is an effort to crush Hindus to please Muslim fanatics in the country.'
The arrest of Hindu activists in connection with the Malegaon blast has put several investigating agencies on rewind mode. If the revelations by Lieutenant Colonel Srikant Purohit are to be believed then several bomb blasts in the country need to be reinvestigated.
Right-wing organisations are holding a five-day conference at Ramnathi, Goa -- headquarters of the Sanatan Sanstha -- from June 10 to June 14 to draw up a timetable for the "formation of a Hindu nation and protection of Hindutva and Hindu organisations". Sanatan Sanstha had hit headlines in October 2009 for its links with Malegaon blast accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, after the death of two people in a scooter bomb blast at Margao on the eve of Diwali.
The Abhinav Bharat President Himani Savarkar on Friday said Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad's contention that the Malegaon blast conspiracy was discussed in her presence by Lt Col Prasad Purohit in April 2008 in Bhopal, is a pack of lies.
Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case and lodged in the Nashik prison was hospitalised on Saturday.
The bail plea filed by Malegaon blasts accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh will be heard on December 14 by the Bombay high court.
The high court was hearing Purohit's application seeking that all charges against him in the case be dropped. Six people were killed and 100 others injured when a bomb strapped to a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Malegaon city in Nashik district of Maharashtra on September 29, 2008.
Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, who was arrested by the Mumbai police's Anti Terrorist Squad in connection with the bomb blast in Malegaon on September 29, has claimed that she is innocent."I am being framed. This is an attempt to malign me," she told her lawyer Ganesh Sovani at a Nashik court on Monday.
"The MP police moved an application in the special MCOCA court here, and after taking the court's permission they placed Sadhvi under arrest in the Sunil Joshi murder case," Rohini Salian, Special Public Prosecutor, told PTI.
'This court has not granted bail...wrong forum has been chosen'
Charging the Centre with appeasing minorities for electoral gains, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Saturday called for a nationwide agitation to highlight the 'oppression of Hindus'."On one hand, the government is not executing death sentence to Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru and on the other it is torturing an innocent person like Sadhvi Pragya Singh, who has been falsely implicated in the Malegaon blast case," VHP leader Venkatesh Abdev said.
"Mumbai Anti-Terrorist Squad must explain as to why Riyaz Bhatkal, an accused in the 2006 Malegaon blasts, and who is allegedly involved in a series of recent blasts all over the country has not been put to narco tests," Prasad charged.
In a statement that is expected to erupt a huge political row, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said on Sunday, "The RSS and BJP are running terrorist training camps to spread Hindu terrorism."
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.
A scuffle broke out between at least 40 accused, allegedly involved in the 7/11 serial train bomb blasts, Malegaon blast and arms and ammunition seizure case of Aurangabad, and Arthur Road jail authorities while they were being transferred to prisons in Maharashtra. Defence advocate Shahid Azmi said the accused were being transferred to Nagpur, Ratnagiri and Kolhapur prisons last Saturday.
Sushilkumar Shinde's deeply prejudiced and communal stewardship of the Union ministry of home affairs needs to be condemned by all right-thinking persons, notes B Raman.
Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, one of the prime accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case and the Sunil Joshi murder case, has been diagnosed with breast cancer, according to a report from the Jawaharlal Nehru Cancer Hospital in Bhopal. A mammography test on her confirmed the ailment on Wednesday, doctors attending on her said.
The Shiv Sena on Monday alleged that the Malegaon blast accused Sadhvi Pragya Thakur was being tortured by the Mumbai police and that she had stopped partaking food for the last eight days.
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.
Alleged Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh activist Sunil Joshi wanted to kill Justice U C Banerjee who headed an inquiry commission on Godhra train burning case, and had even conducted reconnaissance of his house in Kolkata, according to a witness in the 2006 Malegaon blasts case.
Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, an accused in the Malegaon blast, has alleged that she has been tortured and ill-treated by the Anti-Terrorism Squad, her counsel told a court here today.
Shocked by the involvement of a serving lieutenant colonel in a terror plot in Malegaon, the government is determined to get to the root of it
Malegaon blast accused Lt Col Shrikant Prasad Purohit was not authorised to infiltrate into any right wing group including 'Abhinav Bharat' as a military intelligence officer, army officials said on Wednesday rejecting his claims in this regard.
Lt Col Purohit, it is now being reported quoting statements made by officers in the court of inquiry, had actually infiltrated Hindu radical outfit Abhinav Bharat while being posted at Pachmarhi in Madhya Pradesh to snoop in on plans to carry out terror strikes in India.
The family members of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, accused in the Malegaon blasts case, have decided not to cremate her father unless she is granted permission to attend the funeral.
The Bombay high court Friday asked Maharashtra government whether it had any objection in granting bail to Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, one of the prime accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast, on medical grounds.
The Bombay high court has directed the National Investigation Agency to file its reply on a petition challenging its constitutional validity. Justice A S Oka was hearing a petition filed by Malegaon blasts accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur challenging the constitutional validity of the setting up of the NIA.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has condemned a "totally false and baseless propaganda" by certain media organisations that the Supreme Court pulled up its chief Mohan Bhagwat on Wednesday during the hearing of a case in connection with the Malegaon blasts. "During the hearing in the Supreme Court, there was not even a mention of Bhagwat's name," RSS publicity chief Manmohan Vaidya said in a statement.
Deshmukh said there is a law making it compulsory to have signboards in Marathi along with other languages and give priority to locals. However, these laws were not implemented properly, he added.
The Nationalist Congress Party on Monday demanded ban on Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangha and right wing group Abhinav Bharat for their alleged involvement in terrorist activities in the country.
The brother of Malegaon blast accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur attempted suicide in south-east Delhi on Wednesday, alleging that he was being 'harassed' by investigating agencies.Ananth Brahmachari consumed poison and was found unconscious in Jangpura locality on Wednesday afternoon, police sources said.He was rushed to AIIMS where he is currently undergoing treatment, they said.investigating agencies in connection with his sister's alleged association in terrorist acts.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's first list of 24 candidates for Lok Sabha from Madhya Pradesh featured former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, while Bhopal MP Pragya Singh Thakur was replaced by another candidate.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Monday came in defence of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and Lt Colonel Prasad Purohit, prime accused in the Malegaon blasts, and called the imposition of Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act against them as 'political conspiracy'.
Notwithstanding the Centre's decision to hand over 2008 Malegaon blast probe to the National Investigation Agency, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist Squad on Thursday filed a charge sheet alleging that Abhinav Bharat activist Praveen Mutalik was the key conspirator in the bombings that left six people dead.
'It is hard to connect this Hindu terror mastermind over-drive with the Swami Aseemanand of tribal simplicity and boundless energy, whom I have known since the last 11 years and interacted with closely.'
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