Probe reveals that Saffron terror brigade had planned to kill RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat

TNN

New Delhi, 07 February 2014: While a news magazine has claimed to have taped interviews of Samjhauta blast accused Aseemanand revealing that the blasts had Mohan Bhagwat’s blessings, this is not the first time the RSS chief has found himself in saffron terror crosshairs.

 

Investigations by Maharashtra ATS earlier revealed that Bhagwat was actually one of the targets of the saffron terror brigade led by slain RSS pracharak Sunil Joshi. Even Maharashtra home minister R R Patil has admitted as much in the state assembly.

 

After the arrest of a host of saffron terror accused including Pragya Singh Thakur, Lt Col Srikant Prasad Purohit and Dayanand Pandey (who were all associated with right-wing organization Abhinav Bharat), investigations revealed that some of the accused were not happy with Bhagwat leading the RSS and had planned to kill him and another RSS leader Indresh Kumar while on a visit to Pune. Kumar’s name too cropped up several times during investigations as a conspirator but he was never charged by any agency.

 

The planned killings, a report prepared and submitted with the state home ministry then said, were masterminded by S Apte, a 70-year-old Pune-based RSS worker, along with Pandey, Major (retd) Ramesh Upadhyay and others. The ATS had found that Apte and Pandey had approached Purohit for help in executing the plan. Apte also paid him Rs 10 lakh following which a 9mm gun had been arranged.

In April 2010, R R Patil had told the state assembly that though there was no direct information about a plot to murder Bhagwat, Maharashtra police had tapes of conversation among the accused, in which they made derogatory remarks about Bhagwat. "They said he was incapable of carrying the Hindutva agenda forward. He had risen in the ranks without any capabilities... There was bitterness about Bhagwat.’’ Patil added that the accused had discussed a chemical that if put in footwear would kill a man within three days.

 

Months later, Malegaon blasts accused Samir Kulkarni had written to Bombay High Court citing statements of two witnesses attached in the charge-sheet filed by ATS in the case that the plot to kill Bhagwat must be investigated. He wrote that statements of witness number 55, Capt Nitin Joshi, and witness number 61, Shri Sham Apte, revealed a plot to assassinate Bhagwat and one Indresh Kumar.

 

A news magazine has claimed that it met Aseemanand several times in jail and conducted his interview during which he said that Bhagwat had prior knowledge of all the saffron blasts and gave his blessings for it. Aseemanand’s lawyer J S Rana, however, categorically denied the allegations and called the interview concocted.

 

"Aseemanand has said he never gave any such statement implicating Bhagwat. And if this was true, why does it not figure in the confessional statements that CBI and NIA extracted out of him. This is all a political conspiracy," Rana told TOI.

 

RSS leader Ram Madhav said, "A lot of questions have been raised about the veracity of this interview. The veracity of the audio that has surfaced is also questionable." Dismissing the report, RSS ideologue M G Vaidya said Congress will not benefit by this "false propaganda". "Since elections are round the corner many such things will crop up. Authenticity of the interview and whether Aseemanand has said these things or not have to be ascertained," he said.

 

Senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said, "Congress sponsored exercise. They (Congress) know they have no answer on burning issues of the nation -- price rise, corruption, sense of insecurity. Therefore, this is another diversionary tactic. Now, RSS chief is sought to be targeted. We are hearing for the first time that an interview was held in a span of more than two years. Even the NIA has disowned it."