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Malegaon:
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is re-investigating
the 2006 Malegaon blast case after Aseemanand’s confessions, has
found enough evidence to establish the role of saffron brigade into
the incident, a media report said.
"Though the Hindu fundamentalist has
retracted his confession, CBI investigations have found enough -
forensic evidence, witnesses, and circumstances - to establish the
role of the saffron brigade in the attack", said Mumbai based
English daily Mumbai Merror.
Swami Aseemanand who was arrested in
Hyderabad’s Mecca Masjid blast case had told the court in January
that his slain associate from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS),
Sunil Joshi, was behind the 2006 Malegaon blast.
"Investigations have now found that the blasts were conducted by the
same set of people which executed attacks in Purna, Jalna and Nanded
districts of Maharashtra", it said.
“Joshi’s associates have been found to
be involved in all these blasts including the one at Malegaon",
Mumbai Mirror quoted an unnamed CBI official.
"The planning, bomb-making and execution are similar. We have also
found witnesses who have corroborated that this group had visited
Malegaon before the blast for a reconnaissance", the paper quoted
the official.
"We have also identified the places they stayed in. As of now there
are strong indications that Aseemanand’s confession is true. Our
investigations, however, are on to gather more evidence to this
effect", the paper added.
A series of blasts had struck
Malegaon on September 08 in 2006 ahead of Shab-e-Barat, a
Muslim festival when thousands of people were busy offering Friday
prayers at the Hamidia Masjid. Another blast occurred at nearby
Mushawerat chowk few minutes later. 32 people had been killed and
more than 300 were injured in the blasts, most of them being
children.
As was the customary for the
investigating agencies during those days, the blast was
immediately blamed on Muslim youths. Later on, police arrested the
Muslim youths one by one who are still in jail. Ironically one of
the accused who is in jail and has been chargesheeted as one of
the planters, was some 600 kms away from Malegaon when the blast
occurred on September 8, 2006.
Moreover, Abrar Ahmed, one of the
accused, who later became approver but turned hostile, in an
affidavit filled in the court had also claimed that the arrested Muslim
youth are innocent and were framed in the blast case.
Hence local residents demanded CBI
enquiry. After much of an outcry the state government finally handed over the
investigation to the CBI. But it was done only after the ATS had filed
its chargesheet accusing the Muslim youths of masterminding the
terror attack.
The case took an interesting turn when Swami Aseemanand,
one of the accused arrested in Mecca Masjid and other blast
cases, admitted in his confession made before a magistrate that the
Muslim youths arrested in 2006 blast case were not guilty.
Meanwhile, Dr Farogh Makhdoomi, one of
the accused in the case, is observing hunger strike inside the jail
since April 05. Pleading innocence, he is demanding speedy trial of
the case.
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