Malegaon blast case: Court rejects theory of move to arrest Mohan Bhagwat

Mumbai: The Special Court of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has rejected the contention that the Maharashtra police's Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) wanted to arrest RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat in the 2008 Malegaon blast case.

While the Malegaon blast was initially investigated by the ATS and saw the submission of a chargesheet and a supplementary chargesheet, the NIA came into the picture in 2010 and took over the case.

It may be mentioned that Mahiboob Mujawar, a former Inspector who was attached to the ATS, recently claimed that his superiors wanted Bhagwat arrested.

The blast between the Anjuman Chowk and Bhikku Chowk on September 29, 2008, on the eve of Navratri and a couple of days before Eid during the holy month of Ramzan, claimed six lives and injured 101 others.

It may be mentioned that Bhagwat became the RSS chief on March 21, 2009.

In the 1,036-page judgement, in which he acquitted all seven accused, Special Judge Abhay Lahoti dwelt upon the allegations.

For “lack of evidence”, the court gave the “benefit of the doubt” and acquitted former BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur, alias Swami Purnachetanand Giri; former Military Intelligence official Lt Col. Prasad Purohit (retd); Sudhakar Dhar Dwivedi, alias Dayanand Pandey, alias Swami Amrutanand Devtirth, a self-proclaimed Shankaracharya; Maj. Ramesh Upadhyaya (retd); Sameer Kulkarni, alias Chanakya Sameer; Ajay, alias Raja Rahirkar; and Sudhakar Onkarnath Chaturvedi, alias Chanakya Sudhakar.

Dwivedi, who is accused No. 10 (A-10), had pointed out the contention of Mujawar.

“The advocate for A-10 argued that the ATS officer Mehboob Mujawar was one of the investigating officers in the present case. The senior ATS officers had given directions to him to arrest Mohan Bhagwat (RSS chief) by taking him into custody. Whereas their own officer (Mehboob Mujawar) had refused to obey such an illegal order as he did not find any role of Mohan Bhagwat in the alleged offence. Hence, Mehboob Mujawar was entangled in a false case by the ATS, which was filed before the Magistrate of Solapur,” the court said.

The Judge said it is necessary to mention the evidence which came on record pertaining to ATS officer Mehboob Mujawar.

“The prosecution witness, Assistant Commissioner of Police Mohan Kulkarni, had denied the suggestion given in his cross-examination that Mehboob Mujawar was sent by them to bring one senior office-bearer of the RSS. But he admitted that he was sent to find out/trace out the absconding accused Ramji Kalsangra and Sandeep Dange. He also denied the suggestion that Mehboob Mujawar publicly declared that the ATS shot dead two persons and hence, his name was not included in the list of witnesses filed with the charge-sheet,” Special Judge Lahoti said.

“The statement recorded under Section 313 of the CrPC cannot be construed as evidence on the grounds that the statement is not recorded before this court and in support of those documents, he is not examined as a witness before this court. So merely placing some documents is not sufficient. It must be proved through the cogent and reliable testimony of the concerned witness. Moreover, those documents show that it was his defence before the particular court and not before this court,” he said.