Hyderabad, May 18: Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Terrorist Sunil Joshi, one of the accused in the 2007-Makkah Masjid blast case, had allegedly collected identity proofs of several Muslims to buy SIM cards to be used in the Improvised Explosive Device (IED) which were set off in various religious places including Makkah masjid. This was reportedly done for to diverting the attention of the investigative agencies.
The officials of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) said that their investigation had also revealed that Joshi, with the help of Devender Gupta, a Vibhagh Pracharak in the RSS office and co-accused in the blast case, had also prepared a fake driving license under a fictitious name ‘Manoj’.
Joshi was murdered several months ago under mysterious circumstances.
“Sunil Joshi started preparing for the criminal conspiracy since the winter of 2005. Along with Devendra Gupta, they prepared false identification documents like driving licence for himself under the false name of ‘Manoj’ and procured identity cards of Muslims to buy SIM cards to be used in designing IEDs that were to be set off in places densely populated with Muslims in India, like mosques, including the Makkah Masjid,” NIA officials said in the supplementary chargesheet that was filed in the Nampally court on Tuesday. The finance for the conspiracy was allegedly provided by the Assemanand, head of the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram and one Indresh Kumar.
The funds were provided to Sunil Joshi, who allegedly travelled to various places like Indore, Jaipur and Shabridam in Gujarat, and other parts of Jharkhand, West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Nepal to meet different people including the accused Ramji.
“Joshi made several teams to execute various tasks to accomplish the conspiracy. But he always made sure that the identities of the team members were kept secret from one another. NIA officials said that the ammunition and pistols used by the accused were brought from Jharkhand and was facilitated by Devendra Gupta. “The accused procured explosive substances and other IED-related parts with the facilitation of other unknown accused persons. The arrangements were made for people like Ramji to provide training in bomb-making to others, including accused Lokesh Sharma,” the chargesheet added.
During the planning of the conspiracy and after the commissioning of the terrorist attack, Aseemanand allegedly gave shelter to Sunil Joshi and other accused.
–Agencies