Purohit collected money for weapons and explosives: NIA

While giving a clean chit to Sadhvi Pragya Thakur and dropping all charges against her in the Malegaon bomb blast case, the NIA says Lt Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit had organised several meetings with the other accused and had collected money for procuring weapons and explosives for their unlawful activities.

"He is one of the key members of criminal conspiracy. Accused Purohit had floated Abhinav Bharat organisation in 2006 in spite of being a serving Commissioned officer of armed forces of India which is against the service rules," the NIA said in its supplementary charge sheet filed before a Special Court here.

The NIA alleged that on January 25-26 "in a secret meeting held at Faridabad, Purohoit proposed for a separate Constitution for Hindu rashtra with separate saffron flag.

"He read over the Constitution of Abhinav Bharat which he had prepared, discussed about the formation of central Hindu government (Aryawrat) against the Indian government and put forth the idea of forming this government in exile in Israel and Thailand," the NIA said.

Purohit also discussed about taking revenge for the "atrocities" committed by the Muslims on Hindus.

About the RDX recovered from Purhoit's residence, the NIA quoted a Court of Inquiry report of the Army which had claimed that the explosives were planted at his residence by ATS officials who had entered his residence forcibly.

They said the Army has also given a "breakup" of about 70 kg of RDX, suspected to have been proposed to be used for the blasts.

The army has accounted for it by way of controlled destruction or handing over to Jammu and Kashmir Police, the NIA said.

The NIA also alleged that he along with other accused had collected huge funds for the Abhinav Bharat organisation and directed to disburse it to procure weapons and explosives for their unlawful activities.

On Sadhvi's role, the NIA said in its charge sheet that it does not have sufficient evidence against her and five others.

Analysing the evidence against six accused persons, the NIA said that motorcycle used in the blast was used by accused Sadhvi.

However, the agency said that evidence recorded by ATS and reassessed by NIA shows those four witnesses have all stated that absconding accused Ramchandra Kalsangra was in possession of the motorcycle and using it.

"The register of garage also shows that Kalsangra was in possession of the bike," the NIA said.

Purohit had also participated in the meeting of Abhinav Bharat which was held on September 15/16 2008 at Bhosla Military School, Nashik in which accused Ramesh Upadhayay was elected as working president of Abhinav Bharat.

"In this meeting it was decided that the power to take back the weapons acquired for Abhinav Bharat from accused Sudhakar Dhar Dwivedi would vest with Upadhayay," the NIA said.

It alleged that Purohit collected huge amount of funds for himself and for this Abhinav Bharat organisation out of which Rs 2.5 lakhs were paid to one builder in Nashik through accused Ajay Rahirkar for house booked for himself.

During investigation, the FSL report was received with regard to the data retrieved from the laptop of accused Dwivedi.

The voice samples of accused Purohit, Dwivedi, Upadhayay are also available, which are positive as per FSL.

"The authorised intercepted conversation between Purohit and Upadhayay and others reveal that they were also in the process of creating their defence in case," the NIA said, adding Purohit had even suggested to Upadhyay to procure another SIM for himself.

He even alerted him by saying that they should be very meticulous thereafter. "The post conduct of the accused persons shows the guilt in their minds and their active participation in the crime", NIA said in its document.

On October 24, 2008, after the arrest of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Purohit had messaged accused Sameer Kulkarni saying that ATS has entered his house in Pune and also directed him (Kulkarni) to delete numbers from telephone and to leave for Bhopal immediately.

"This act of the accused confirms his complicity in the present crime," NIA said.

The agency said that, "notwithstanding the shortcoming in the evidence, at this stage there is sufficient evidence to prosecute Purohit under various statutes and sections of law and the value of the evidence placed on record shall be assessed at the trial stage."

In the charge sheet NIA also said that the confession statement of another accused, Sudhakar Dwivedi, said that in July 2008 when he was at Indore circuit house, Sadhvi came with two men and introduced them as Ramji and Sandeep Dange. In the confession, Dwivedi said that they were her reliable men and later on he met Kalsangra and Dange and discussed Indore riots.

He said that during this period Thakur called Dwivedi saying that she had requested the accused LT Col Prasad Purohit to provide explosives for the safety of Hindus but he (Purhoit) was not responding and he (Dwivedi) should talk to Purohit and tell him to provide explosives to Kalsangra and Dange.

According to Dwivedi's confession he called Purhoit but the latter told him not to talk about such things over the phone and asked him to come to meet him at Ujjain.

"It is evident that accused Dwivedi retracted from his confessional statement. Since the provisions of MCOCA are not being invoked in this charge sheet, this confessional statement does not have any evidentially value," the NIA said.

The NIA also said that prosecution witness (PW) 79, in his statement before the magistrate, said that in Bhopal meeting, Purhoit discussed taking revenge on Muslims  by carrying out blasts in Muslim areas, especially Malegoan. According to the statement of PW 79, Sadhvi offered to provide men for this purpose.

"When PW 79 was re-examined he deposed that he did not attend any meeting of Abhinav Bharat held in Bhopal. He never visited Bhopal until ATS took him to a Ram Mandir at Bhopal in May 2012," said NIA in the charge sheet.

The NIA also said in the statement of PW 22 recorded before the magistrate, he spoke about a meeting between Sadhvi and Kalsangra at Ujjain on October 8, 2008 (after Malegoan blast). In the meeting Kalsangra confessed that he carried out the blast at Malegoan by using Sadhvi's motorcycle and also told her to inform the police.

"It is pertinent to mention that this witness has lodged a complaint with the judicial magistrate stating that he was illegally detained and tortured by ATS and they forced him to depose the statement. His confessional statement recorded by ATS is also in question and there is every possibility that he may also retract from his earlier statement," said NIA in its charge sheet.

The agency also said that two witnesses earlier said that they attended Abhinav Bharat meeting held at Bhopal and in the meeting Purohit explained about the Jihadi activities in Aurangabad and Malegoan in detail and appealed to others to do something for its prevention and he also said that "preparation of Gorilla (sic) war was on".

"While re-examination one of the witnesses did not support his claim and said that none of the participants said anything about committing bomb blast while another died," said NIA chargesheet.

The NIA also said that in his earlier statement PW 55 said that Purohit once told him that he, Kalsangra and another accused Sudhakar Chaturvedi fitted IED to the motorcycle provided by Sadhvi.

The agency said that the witness has already lodged a complaint against ATS with the State Human rights commission that his statements were recorded under duress by Mumbai ATS.

Evidence against Sadhvi was not sufficient to prosecute her, the NIA said.

"On evaluation of above evidence against Sadhvi it is submitted that the evidences on record against her are not sufficient to prosecute her as all the witnesses have already retracted from their statements. Thus no case is made out against her," NIA said in the charge sheet.