Cracking the terror code
Smita NairTags : Mecca Masjid blast, Bomb blast, RSS, Ajmer,Malegaon, ATSPosted: Sun Jul 18 2010, 00:12 hrs
The site of the Malegaon blast of 2008; (below) prayers at Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad after the serial blasts of 2007
The alleged links emerging between some leaders of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and suspects of the bomb blasts in Hyderabad’s Mecca Masjid and Ajmer in 2007 and Malegaon in 2008, have been greeted with an element of surprise—as well as denial.
But investigators probing these acts of terror consider the findings a major milestone in a journey they began in the aftermath of the Malegaon blast, the first major attack in the country blamed on Hindu extremists. Within days of making the first breakthrough in the case and arresting Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur in connection with Malegaon, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) got their hands on Lt Col Shrikant Prasad Purohit, a serving army military intelligence officer who was eventually accused of being a key conspirator.
During his interrogation in November 2008, Purohit is alleged to have claimed that he not only supplied RDX explosives used in the Samjhauta Express bombing in February 2007, but also to a “cell” he said was behind “two other blasts”. Soon, investigating teams from Haryana, Hyderabad and Ajmer, and finally CBI Director Ashwani Kumar, landed in Mumbai where Purohit was being interrogated.
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Purohit’s claims did not surprise many though. While the investigation of the Samjhauta bombing had got stuck after the trail of the suitcases in which the bombs were planted led to a village near Indore from where the suitcases were purchased, the Mecca Masjid and Ajmer trail also eventually reached Madhya Pradesh.
Investigators say that links between the Mecca Masjid and the Ajmer blasts were already there on paper as forensic experts had established that the same group was behind the blasts. But they suspected it to be Harkat-ul-Jehadi-Islami (HUJI), the Bangladeshi terror group blamed for attacks elsewhere in India in the past.
A SIM card from one of the unexploded bombs at the exit gate of Mecca Masjid was the first crucial evidence. The Andhra Pradesh police found that the SIM card inside the Nokia 6030 phone belonged to a person named Babulal Yadav. But it was a fictitious name.
The CBI, which took over the case in June 2007, continued the SIM card probe. The joint probe—with inputs collected by the Andhra police and CBI—found that while the SIM card was bought using a fictitious identity, the photograph belonged to a yoga instructor called Tarak Nath Pramanik. The probe, which would continue at a slow pace for another three and half months, was about to unravel a “very calculated and a very strategic operation”.
“Unlike other blasts where terror outfits cry out loud and own up the act, the evidence” had convinced investigators that “this was something new, something far more real than what we see and hear,” says a senior officer.
Call logs were tracked, a million subscriber databases of various cell phone providers cross-checked, and it was found that the SIM card had been used in other phones and those phones had also used other SIM cards. “This was the first indication that it was an organised crime. The motive was still difficult to track,” recalled a forensic expert.
It took investigators some time to find out that the picture of Pramanik had been plucked out of a national news weekly in which it was published alongside a column on yoga he wrote for in 2005 and 2006. The details of the picture were sent around and it was found that the same photograph had been used to buy nine SIM cards in Babulal Yadav’s name. Two more SIM cards had been bought using the picture but under the fictitious name of Ramesh Agrawal.
By September 2007, investigating agencies had tracked shops in Jamtara and Mihijam in Jharkhand, Asansol and Chittaranjan in West Bengal and Roopnarayanpur in Bihar from where the SIM cards had been bought. The handsets had similarly been bought from New Delhi, Faridabad, Mihijam, Asansol and Chittaranjan. Barely three to five calls were made from each SIM card to “confirm the phone connection” and ensure that they remain active.
“All this convinced us that “extreme caution” had been taken to ensure that even an accidental leak of information would not expose the brains behind the operation. And as expected, the phones and SIMs went dead after the blast,” said an investigating officer.
But sleuths operating across states were also suspicious that the perpetrators would not have mounted such a large operation for just one blast in Hyderabad. And they were proved right when Khwaja Mohinuddin Chishti’s dargah in Ajmer was hit by a bomb in October 2007, five months after the Mecca Masjid blasts.
The Ajmer blast only added more clues to the ones investigators already had from their probe in Hyderabad. Both bombs had been wrapped and stuffed with paper from the same Telugu newspaper—the May 4, 2007, copy of Andhra Jyoti—indicating the scope of the operation. Moreover, at both places, the attackers placed two bombs to be activated by mobile phones and at both places only one of them exploded, leaving the other behind for investigators to establish their links.
But progress was once again slow as the groups behind the two blasts were apparently lying low until Malegaon was attacked in September 2008 and Purohit was questioned. Picking up the strands from there, investigators found that some of the SIM cards that had been bought from various parts of eastern India and had not been accounted for in the two blasts, had become active in June 2009 in two villages near Indore—Chapri and Kala Peepal.
Investigations found that the SIMs were being used by RSS officer bearers. One was with Sharda Bharot, the wife of an RSS worker, Chandrashekar Barot. The others were with Vishnu Patidar and his brothers Vinod and Santosh. All of them reported to Devendra Gupta who was the head of the propaganda team for the district. Gupta is now in the custody of the CBI after the Rajasthan police arrested him for his alleged role in the the Ajmer blast.
The probe found that Bharot, Sandeep Dange, who is still absconding, and Sunil Joshi, who was mysteriously killed while he was out on a walk in a village near Indore after the Ajmer blast, and Ramchandra Kalsangra, a much wanted fugitive, constituted the primary group which was allegedly in charge of logistics, making and planting the bombs in Hyderabad and Ajmer. Sandeep Dange, who allegedly planted the bomb in Malegaon as well and who is wanted for the Mecca Masjid blast, is the RSS Vibhag Pracharak for Indore and was the “controller” for Sunil Joshi and Lokesh Sharma, another RSS worker wanted in connection with both Mecca Masjid and Ajmer blasts.
With the alleged plot unravelling now, police in Ajmer, Hyderabad and the CBI suspect that Dange and Kalsangra were partners in buying the eight phones and nine SIM cards that have been traced so far. While a hunt is on for both of them, the CBI has questioned two senior RSS leaders from Uttar Pradesh, Ashok Varshney and Ashok Beri, on suspicion that they may have sheltered Gupta and even provided logistics to the perpetrators of the blasts.
But crucial to any substantial progress in the case would be to find Kalsangra and Dange, the two who are suspected to be the common factors in the blasts that shook Mecca Masjid, Ajmer and Malegaon.
Sadhvi Pragya singh Thakur
Former ABVP member and founder of Jai Vande Mataram Jankalyan Samiti, the Sadhvi was arrested on October 23 last year. Her bike was used by her “two confidantes”, Kalsangra and Sandeep Dange, for planting a bomb in Malegaon.
Lt Col Prasad Shrikanth Purohit
Was serving at Panchmarhi at the time of his arrest. Said to be the founder of Abhinav Bharat, the organisation that propagated a separate Hindu Rashtra, the ATS calls him the face behind the "fundamental ideology". Was responsible for procuring explosives.
Sudhakar Udayaban Dhar Dwivedi alias Dayanand Pandey, Swami Amrutanand Devoir, Shankaracharya Sharada Sarvagya Peeth,
is charged with attending conspiracy meetings where he spoke of seeking revenge for atrocities against Kashmiri Pandits.
Rakesh Dattatraya Dhawade
Arms curator and antique arms collector in Pune. Associated with the Abhinav Bharat group, he is charged with sourcing explosives.
Sameer Sharad Kulkarni
Media publicist for Abhinav Bharat, was one of the two “thinkers” of the group.
Sudhakar Omkarnath Chaturvedi
The other ‘Chanakya’, his house was allegedly used for assembling the IED used in the Malegaon blast.
Shivnarayan Gopalsingh Kalsangra
Related to the ‘planter’ Ramji Kalsangra. The ATS found two timers at his residence given to him by his brother.
Shyam Bavarlal Sahu
The owner of a mobile store, he’s charged with supplying Ramji with SIM cards.
Ramesh Shivji Upadhyay
Retired Army Major and the working president of Abhinav Bharat. Charged with attending conspiracy meetings.
Ajay Raja Eknath Rahirkar
Treasurer of Abhinav Bharat. Is charged with controlling the finances and disbursing the amount for procuring explosives and hand grenades.
Jagdish Chintaman Mhatre
He was the last in the chain for sourcing weapons; the ATS recovered two imported firearms with 15 live cartridges from the Dombivali resident.
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