Malegaon blast: Who are absconding accused Ramji Kalsangra, Sandeep Dange?

Mumbai: Who are Ramchandra Kalsangra and Sandeep Dange? Where are they?

They are considered crucial in several terrorism cases including September 8 2006 triple blasts in Malegaon, February 18 2007 Samjhauta Express attack, 18 May 2007 blast Makkah Masjid in Hyderabad, 11 October 2007 blast in courtyard of Sufi saint Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer and the 29 September 2008 blast in Malegaon.

The duo, who hail from Indore in Madhya Pradesh, are wanted in all these cases.

Kalsanga goes by aliases Ramji Kalsangra or Vishnu Patel while Dange goes by alias Parmanand.

The duo are wanted by several agencies including the National Investigation Agency (NIA) abd Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

When the Special NIA Court, last week acquitted seven accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast, Special Judge Abhay Lahoti gave liberty to the federal agency to file a separate charge-sheet against the absconding accused Ramji Kalsangra and Sandeep Dange on their arrest.

Kalsangra (AA-1) and Dange (AA-2), both residents of Indore, were shown as wanted accused in the Malegaon-II case which was maintained by the NIA.

While the ATS claimed that Kalsangra was the one who planted the explosive-laden LML Freedom motorbike at the spot in Malegaon, NIA had said Kalsangra and Dange were in possession of the bike for more than a year prior to the blast.

Ramji’s brother Shivnarayan Kalsangra, who was arrested in the case by the ATS, was discharged in December 2017 along with four others - Shyamlal Sahu, Pravin Takalki alias Mutalik, Rakesh Dattatreya Dhawade, Jagdish Chintaman Mhatre.

The Kalsangra brothers, hailing from a farmers’ family, worked as electricians.

Dange is an engineering graduate and son of a professor.

The seven who has been acquitted in the Malegaon-II case are Sadhvi Pragya Singh Chandrapal Singh Thakur, Lt Col Prasad Purohit (Retd), Maj Ramesh Upadhyaya (Retd), Sameer Kulkarni alias Chanakya Sameer, Ajay alias Raja Rahirkar, Sudhakar Dhar Dwivedi alias Dayanand Pandey alias Swami Amrutanand Devtirth and Sudhakar Onkarnath Chaturvedi alias Chanakya Sudhakar.

Back in Indore, Kalsangra’s wife Lakshmi Kalsangra and three sons are waiting to know their whereabouts. “We are still waiting for justice. My mother, both my brothers and my grandparents still hope one day we will receive concrete news about my father. We have no information about him for the past 17 years,” said Devvrat, the son of Ramji Kalsangra.

The NIA Court, in its verdict also dismissed the theory that they had died when they were in custody of ATS - as claimed by former Inspector Mahiboob 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 RSS. But admitted that, he was sent to find out / trace out absconding accused Ramji Kalsangra and Sandeep Dange.

"He also denied the suggestion that Mehboob Mujawar publicly declare that the ATS short-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 CrPC. cannot be construed as evidence on the counts 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 defense before the particular court and not before this court,” he said.