Hyderabad, June 30: Investigating agencies are questioning two senior RSS members from Uttar Pradesh in connection with the Makkah Masjid bomb blast in Hyderabad in 2007, suspecting that they may have known about the plot which led to the killing of about a dozen worshippers, and gave shelter to the perpetrators after the attack.
News about the questioning comes days after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) announced a reward of Rs 10 lakh for information regarding two suspected Hindu extremists, Ramchandra Kalsangra alias Ramji and Sandeep Dange alias Parmanand, who have been on the run and are also wanted in connection with the 2007 Ajmer blast and the 2008 Malegaon blast.
Investigators now suspect that the same group of Hindu extremists may have been responsible for all three bomb attacks.
The RSS members from Uttar Pradesh were called to Hyderabad and questioned there, security sources told. One of them, Ashok Beri, is the Kshetra Pracharak of the RSS in Uttar Pradesh. The other, Ashok Varshney, is the outfit’s Praanth Pracharak and is based in Kanpur.
The two men are being questioned following the interrogation of Devendra Gupta and Lokesh Sharma, who have been arrested in connection with the Ajmer blast and are also RSS pracharaks.
“Based on the information, they are believed to have had knowledge of the blast before it happened and are believed to have given shelter to the accused during the period that followed,” one security source said referring to Beri and Varshney.
While Beri could not be reached for his comments, Varshney confirmed that he had been questioned by investigators in connection with the Mecca Masjid blast but refused to discuss any details.
Gupta and Sharma are suspected to have also known Sadhvi Pragyasingh Thakur and Lt. Col Prasad Purohit, accused in the Malegaon blast.
Investigators allege that the Makkah Masjid blast was carried out by Sharma, Gupta, Dange, Kalsangra and Sunil Joshi. Sharma had recceed the blast site and stayed in a lodge in Secunderabad for over two months.
Sharma reportedly passed on the information to Joshi, Dange and Kalsangra who came to Secunderabad at least two-three days before the blast and on May 18 went inside the Makkah Masjid as visitors and placed the bombs, it has been alleged. Joshi was subsequently murdered by unknown attackers.
-Agencies