CBI team to camp in Malegaon; may question ATS officials

Malegaon/Mumbai, Jan 30 (PTI) In the light of a
confession by Swami Aseemanand, the Indian premier
investigative agency, CBI will re-examine all the evidence in
the 2006 Malegaon blast case and has decided to depute a
special team to the powerloom city to conduct a fresh probe in
the case.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) plans to
examine the role of officials of Maharashtra Anti-Terror
Squad, which had chargesheeted nine people in the case, and
re-visit their investigations into the case, official sources
said.
35 people were killed in the blast that rocked the
powerloom city of Malegaon in the western part of India in
2006.
The sources said that a team led by Joint Director
Kandaswamy will be camping in this powerloom city and examine
all the forensic evidence that had been collected by the ATS,
which was led by the then Joint Commissioner K P Raghuvanshi
and his Deputy Inspector General Subodh Jaiswal.
The arming mechanism of the three explosions were not
identified by the ATS but it was quick enough in making the
arrests and later filing charge sheet against nine people --
Shabbir Ahmed Masiullah, Noorul Huda Samsudoha, Raees Ahmed
Mansuri, Salman Farsi Aimi, Farogh Iqbal Magdumi, Mohammed Ali
Shaikh, Asif Khan, Mohammed Abdul Ansari and Abrar Gulam
Ahmed.
Right-wing Hindu group Abhinav Bharat member Swami
Assemanand, who was arrested by the CBI, has stated in his
confessional statement before a magistrate that the Malegaon
blast was masterminded by a Hindu group and that a boy
arrested in the case had brought about a change in his heart
which led to he spilling the beans.
The ATS had also filed a chargesheet in the case
despite the Maharashtra government's decision to hand over the
investigations to the CBI in December 2006. The ATS counsel
had admitted before the Bombay High Court that it was not
aware of the Government's decision of handing over the probe
to the CBI.
The CBI, which remained silent on the issue, had also
submitted a charge sheet in February last year during which
the agency had put forward a taped conversation between Abrar
and other conspirators.
Both the CBI and the ATS had failed in identifying the
two persons who had planted the explosives on the fateful day.
However, an internal enquiry showed that the taped
conversation was provided by one of the sources of the ATS to
the CBI. The contents of the tape had been been questioned in
the court by Abrar.
Abrar had alleged in his petition that he was made to
speak on the phone to someone by the then Superintendent of
Police (Rural) Rajvardhan, a 1997 batch IPS officer, who is
now Deputy Commissioner of Police in the Special Branch.
The CBI is planning to examine Rajvardhan as well in
connection with the case besides some other religious
organisation in Malegaon.
CBI, earlier this month, had approached the special
MCOCA court seeking permission for re-investigating the case
in wake of "confession" statements made by Swami Aseemanand
linking Hindu groups to terror acts.
Accepting CBI's arguments, special MCOCA Judge Yatin D
Shinde granted the agency permission under section 173 (8) of
Criminal Procedure Code to reinvestigate the case.
Assemanand, alias Jatin Chatterjee, had stated in his
statement that his RSS' murdered worker Sunil Joshi and others
were responsible for Malegaon 2006 blasts.
Four bombs planted in Malegaon, the
communally-sensitive powerloom township had exploded on
September 8. The day happened to be Shab-e-Baraat, considered
auspicious among Muslims, when they assemble to pay respects
to their dead kin.
The police claimed 20 kg RDX was smuggled to Malegaon
and around five kg was used to make six bombs.
Malegaon had seen another terror attack in 2008
allegedly by right wing Hindu groups and Sadhvi Pragya and
former Lt Col Srikanth Purohit were arrested in connection
with the incident.