The long-awaited verdict on the Malegaon blast of 2008 was delivered by a special court in Mumbai. The judgement has acquitted all seven accused in the Malegaon blasts case, which came as a blow to the victims and celebrations to the Hindutva camp. Many were anticipating this type of verdict and it was no surprise to them as during the period of last 17 years the investigating agencies did change the track, particularly after 2014. The blast was carried by a group which used a motorcycle. The RDX used in the bomb blew up at a time when the gathering of Muslims was there and killed six people and injured over one hundred people. This happened in the month of Ramadan. Former BJP MP from Bhopal Pragya Singh Thakur, the serving army officer Lt. Colonel Prasad Shrikant Purohit, Retd Major Ramesh Upadhyay were among the seven accused who were named arrested.
Initially the Malegaon blasts case was with the Maharashtra Anti-terrorism squad. Later National Investigation Agency took it over in 2011. The court observed that there is a strong suspicion about the accused being involved but prosecution has not been able to prove it beyond doubt, so all the accused are acquitted. There was a strong appreciation of the judgment from Hindu Right, they also accused the Congress for setting the narrative for saffron terror the result of which was this accusation of various people from the right wing.
There are some points of the trajectory of investigation which need to be kept in mind while making an opinion on this. Hemant Karkare, who investigated the case, began with the Motor Cycle of Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, an Ex ABVP-activist. The trail led to these accused and they were arrested.
One of the early blasts in the area was the one which happened in Nanded in April 2006. In the house of Rajkondawar, a bomb exploded. The reason was that in the house a bomb was being assembled and due to some mishandling, it exploded. The incident was investigated by a Citizens inquiry team under the leadership Ex Rashtra Seva Dal President, Dr. Suresh Khairnar. Two youths, Himanshu Panse (27) and Naresh Rajkondwar (26), died on the spot and three, Yogesh Deshpande (24), Maruti Wagh (23) and Gururaj Tuptewar (25), were badly injured. The flag of Bajrang Dal was flying over the house. At the site, fake beard and moustache and pajama Kurta were also seen.
Around this time some explosions also took place in Parbhani, Panvel and Jalna. In case of Malegaon 2008 blast as Karkare was doing meticulous investigation and arresting the accused, the ally of BJP, the united Shiv Sena Chief Bal Thackeray in his paper Saamana wrote that , ‘we spit on Karkare’ for his anti-Hindu activity. Lal Krishna Advani, the then leader of opposition said that the accused are being tortured.
In the 26/11 2008 Mumbai terror attack, Hemant Karkare was killed, after which Narendra Modi who was then Chief Minster of Gujarat rushed to Mumbai with a cheque of one Crore to Karkare’s widow, who politely declined to accept it. Same Modi had called Karkare as doing things against national interests as he had arrested Pragya Thakur and company, now Karkare started being presented as a martyr after he was killed. As he was investigating this; due to such comments coming from different Hindutva quarters, he went to Julio Ribbeiro, his peer, an upright professional. Mr. Ribeiro appreciated his forthright work and asked him to continue his work in a professional manner.
After the tragic death of Karkare, Pragya Thaur had her own version of the story. Applauded by leaders of the BJP who surrounded her during a press-conference…, Thakur described Karkare as “anti-national” and “dharamvirudh” (anti-religion). “You won’t believe but I said, ‘tera sarvanash hoga’ [You will be destroyed],” she said. “Just after sawa mahina [one and a quarter months], terrorists killed him.”
In the other cases of terror blasts (Ajmer, Mecca Masjid and Samjhauta Express) Swami Aseemanand was arrested. After his arrest he confessed to his crimes in front of a metropolitan Magistrate. The confession was voluntary and was recorded under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code before Metropolitan Magistrate at Tis Hazari courts on December 18. Swami’s statement was recorded after 48 hours of judicial custody, to ensure that no sort of pressure or intimidation is working on the mind of the confessor. In this statement he confessed that he and other Hindu activists were involved in bombings at Muslim religious places because they wanted to answer every Islamist terror act with “a bomb for bomb’’ policy.
A bit later he retracted the statement saying that this was given under coercion. It came as a lot of surprise as one knows that the statements given in front of police authorities can be under pressure or coercion but in front of a judge it is another matter. His 48 hours judicial custody was a time enough to consider all aspects of the issues involved. It seems more of a turning around, an afterthought to protect his associates and the parent organization. Swami, after accepting the legal assistance; retracted the statement.
These confessions were published in Caravan and a lot of turmoil was created. Immediately Swami went on to retract the content of the interviews he gave to the reporter of Caravan. The reporter and the editor of Magazine have stood by their version and have also released the parts of the audio tapes to authenticate the interview’s contents. This Caravan story not only reconfirmed most of what Swami had confessed in the Court but added other dimensions also. Caravan report points out (The Believer: Swami Aseemanand’s radical service to the Sangh, by LEENA GITA REGHUNATH | 1 February 2014, Caravan Magazine, http://www.caravanmagazine.in/reportage/believer).
The other major verdict in recent times was that related to train blasts in Mumbai. In this the Muslim accused were released, declared non guilty and the Government immediately appealed against judgement. In the Nanded judgement case there is a wide celebration in the right-wing camp and no talk of appealing against it by the Government. Interestingly just before the date of judgement Home Minister Amit Shah declared that a Hindu can never be a terrorist, thereby associating terrorism to religion. He deliberately forgot Godse (Mahatam’s Killer), Dhanu (Rajiv Gandhi’s killer) and so many other terrorists whose religion is Hindu. But surely terrorism has nothing to do with any religion.
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