New Delhi, March 23: Former ABVP activist and key terror accused Pragya Singh Thakur has told the Mumbai Anti-Terrorism Squad that fellow radical Ramji Kalsangra was responsible for the September 29, 2008, Malegaon bomb blast which he executed using her motorcycle.
She has also told investigators that the casualty figure of seven in that blast would have been higher had it not been for a “faulty bomb timer”.
The Mumbai ATS recorded this statement on October 15, 2008, after Pragya Thakur did not reveal much in her two other statements on October 11 and October 12, 2008.
This statement, a copy of which is with The Indian Express, assumes significance as the Home Ministry proposes that the National Investigation Agency bring under its purview all terror cases involving alleged Hindu extremists, including Malegaon, Samjhauta Express and the murder of ex-RSS pracharak Sunil Joshi.
The Law Ministry is vetting the proposal and a formal notification is expected later this week.
Pragya Thakur’s statement in Marathi focuses on a 30-minute critical meeting with Ramji Kalsangra — who had been using her Freedom motorcycle after the murder of Sunil Joshi in December 2007 — at the Mahakaal Dharmashala in Ujjain on October 8, 2008. Kalsangra has been missing since the bomb blast.
This meeting was sought by Pragya Thakur after a Mumbai ATS police inspector called her a day earlier at Indore and questioned her about the motorcycle used in the blast. The inspector asked Thakur to come to Surat to meet him.
Thakur said she bought the vehicle (registered number GJ 05 BR 1920) from Surat in 2003 with financial assistance from her “rakhi brother” Sunil Joshi of Dewas. In November 2004, Thakur gave the motorcycle to Joshi for use for Rs 22,000. She said the motorcycle was never sold to Sunil Joshi.
Arriving in Ujjain after taking the night train from Indore, Thakur was received by Kalsangra’s aide Dharmendra. The meeting was fixed at the Mahakaal Dharmashala over a safe mobile phone handed over to Thakur by the Kalsangra aide at the railway station.
During the 30-minute conversation, Thakur says she asked Kalsangra about the motorcycle and asked him to come with her to Surat. The statement quotes Kalsangra saying: “I have used your vehicle for a bomb blast in Malegaon, Maharashtra.” When she asked him why did he do this, Kalsangra replied: “It happened.”
Thakur then said that she would have to go to jail as the vehicle was in her name. Ramji Kalsangra replied that she need not worry as he had changed the number-plate and filed off the vehicle’s engine and chassis number. He told her the police would find no clues.
According to her statement, Kalsangra told her that “two or three people” had died in Malegaon. Ramji said: “There was a mistake in timing of the bomb explosion. I tried to park the vehicle in one or two crowded places but could not do so. After this, I parked the vehicle at one place and left immediately. At that point, there was not much crowd in the vicinity and there was so much explosive packed in the vehicle that the entire rear-end was blown away.”
Countering his claim that he had left no clues, Thakur told Kalsangra that the police had tracked her down and so there must have been a trail. According to Thakur, Kalsangra told her: “I don’t think so. Work has been done. If you want, you can take my name.”
Thakur is quoted as having replied that she would take the blame and go to jail as she was not employed and had no work. The statement says that Thakur was lying unwell in the house of a builder in Indore on the day of the blast.
Thakur met the police inspector in Surat on October 10, 2008, with Kalsangra buying her a ticket to Surat and giving her another Rs 15,000 for expenditure.
In the statement, Thakur is also quoted as having said that she met Lt Colonel Srikant Prasad Purohit on October 5, 2008 in Jabalpur. Purohit told her that he had orchestrated bomb blasts in Orissa, Karnataka and Maharashtra, “killing a large number of people.”
THE SADHVI & THE COLONEL
PRAGYA FELL OUT with Malegaon blast accused Col Shrikant Purohit over “money”, the Sadhvi has told the NIA. She said she met Purohit first in April 2008 at an Abhinav Bharat gathering.
PUROHIT sent text messages to associates saying “Singh has sung the song” after Pragya’s arrest, which, the NIA believes, could indicate that Purohit, Pragya and others were working together.
LIKE-MINDED ORGANISATIONS are funding her defence and medical treatment, Pragya told the NIA. In its report to the Home Ministry, NIA has said 2 Mumbai builders are paying her lawyer’s bills.
Courtesy: Indianexpress