Malegaon: Dawn of a new probe

At long last there is a ray of hope that the mystery surrounding Shabe Barat serial bomb blasts of September 8, 2006 in Malegaon will be lifted and justice would be done. The nine accused will breathe the air of freedom soon if not immediately. There may be one or two who were caught for some other than terrorism crime but they would wash the stigma of jihad terrorism of which they were maligned and jailed for.



The most crucial aspect was that of the state approver Abrar Ahmed. His father and lawyer brother always maintained that the Superintendent of police in Malegaon Mr Rajwardhan had framed up Abrar. Why did the aged father of Abrar, like the wailing mother of Khwaja Yunus, never tire of blaming the police official is a cause of concern. He pointedly told visitors that he had interacted with the local police all his life and had mediated between the public and the police in matters involving dispute or for peace and had cooperated with them. Yet, he was at a loss to understand how come of all the people his son could have strayed away. True, that Abrar was an informer. True, that he was idle. But planting bomb to kill was beyond what his father could believe. But no one heeded his complaint. However in the aftermath of the sensational disclosure in the arrests of the eleven accused in September 29, 2008 blast there is a groundswell of suspicion of something fishy regarding the Shabe barat blasts at the cemetery and the Mushawarat chowk that killed more than 37 people.



It is a mystery of mysteries that Abrar had simply disappeared. His brother had filed a habeas corpus in the Bombay high court and so the police were compelled to present him in the court at the eleventh hour. But they took a lot of care to prevent free mixing of Abrar and his family members who had been present in the court and outside. Between his disappearance and his reappearance in the high court he was in Deolali camp and Indore, among other places. He had hardly any money till he disappeared. Where did he get the money to travel and stay in places? The police brought him to the court; did the police then maintain him? Why? If the two places figure in the meeting of the extremists of the Abhinav Bharat then was he co-opted by them? It would suggest further that the huge amount with Abrar and his expenses were paid either by the police, SIMI or paid from the fund at the discretion of the liaison officer of army intelligence Lt Col Purohit.



Then there is the mystery of the phone calls he made in which he expressed fear for his life. Why did he fear when he was with the police?



While Abrar was kept at Deolali camp, the artillery cantonment near Nasik, he would tell his people on phone that men in red turban surrounded him. What he could not comprehend was the truth that they could be the artillery jawans wearing uniform that included red turbans.



He had been to Indore where Sadhvi Pragyasing Thackur, Sameer Kulkarni, Ramesh Upadhya and Ramnarayan Singh also lived for sometime. The same is true of Deolali.Of all the places why did he have to go there? Indore is not the least popular place for people of Malegaon to go, nor has it tourist attraction of any sort. While he was there he phoned his father to meet him as he was returning to Nasik and would be passing by the Agra highway through Malegaon. His relatives went there but could not meet him. Did anyone prevent the meeting and why?



There are two more aspects to inquire into. If Rakesh Dhawde supplied arms in Malegaon case, then it is pertinent to inquire which of the two cases, or both? The role of SIMI and/or army. Either of the two supplied RDX for September 8, 2006 blasts, too. Shrikant Purohit has alleged that some SIMI boys were used to make bomb. He has also told Sunit Joshi that he had 60 kg RDX that he had given to Bhagwan for use in blowing Samjhauta express compartments. This cannot remain suppositional for long as RDX was found in the blasts of 2006 and 2008.