Why and how the trail in Malegaon 2006 blasts case went cold?

The natives of Malegaon were aware of how the police had questioned 20 Hindus including merchants dealing in yarn and cloth from the town about the bomb explosions. They also knew that a huge amount was distributed minutes after the blasts at the Mamco Bank in Perry chowk on September 8, 2006. Among them was Mahesh Patodiaya. When called to Killa police station a huge crowd of Hindutva supporters and merchants forced the police to let Patodiya go. That is how the footmarks of the guilty were wiped out. The police then took up the familiar accused Students Islamic Movement of India activists as the guilty. They arrested them on false charges of their complicity in conspiracy and causing explosions. They were thrown in dungeon to languish there for more than five years. The first investigation officer of police sent to Malegaon was given two points for reference of inquiry. One, whether the September 2006 bomb blasts had anything in common with what had happened in Nanded earlier the same year on April 6, night when Hindu extremists belonging to Bajrang Dal and RSS were assembling bombs meant for use against Muslim accidentally blew one that killed two and injured the others. This happened in the house of RSS volunteer and a PWD engineer. The second point of reference to the IO PSI Devidas Sonowne was to make inquiry into the possible involvement of three Hindus in the Malegaon blasts. The IO did not find anything. That was due to the bogus investigation made by the local police under ASP Rajwardhan. The local police in its charge sheet said that the Muslims had blown bombs to cause a riot! They had suffered heavy casualties in the riot of October 26, 2001 and wanted to protest and take revenge. But this specious argument is totally wrong. The police firing in October 2001 had killed 17 Muslims, one municipal council member Khalil was killed by the Hindu mob led by Shiv Sena MLA Dada Bushe and a Hindu was killed by the Muslim mob. So how could Muslim plot to blow bombs to kill more Muslims? So IO’s failure to inquire resulted in a clean chit to the three Hindus namely Parsuram Shiva Mohite, Balyogi Surajnath and Mahesh Patodiya and the other 20 summoned for inquiry for their involvement in the blasts of September 6, 2006.(1) But it also tried to hide the Nanded connection because Himanshu Panse and Nareshraj Kondewar who died in the explosion in April; and Maruti Keshu Wagh, Yogesh Pande, Gururaj and Rahul Pandey who were injured were part of the module under Sunil Joshi. Joshi along with his men Rajednra Choudhary, Mohand Singh, Dhan Singh and Lokes Sharmar had caused the Malegaon blasts of September 8. Those involved in Malegaon 2006 and Nadned explosion of April of the same years were trained at Baggi in Madhya Pardesh by Joshi and Ramchandra Kanlsangra and Sandeep Dange. They were further trained by Lt Col Prasad Purohit and one IB officer at Pune and at Nashik Bhonsla Military schools and at the Sinhgarh resort near Pune in making bombs and using fire arms. What was the purpose then of the inquiry that DSP MR Malegaonkar had ordered Sonowne and his assistant inspector Awhad to make? How and why their blank report handed over to ATS helped the ATS to turn the investigation into a catastrophic misuse in hunting the 9 accused from the Muslim community and framing false charges against them? It surely points to a heinous conspiracy of collusion between the Hindutva terrorists and the police! A day before the case was handed over to the CBI the ATS under KP Raghuvanshi submitted its charge sheet. The CBI virtually did nothing except reproducing the ATS findings. It was only when the NIA took over the case that some progress was made. Therefore the need for a new investigation is necessary in the case of 2006 bomb attacks in Malegaon. There are valid grounds for the demand. One, that the local police and ATS played a proactive role in framing the Muslims even before the bombs went off on September 8, 2008. Two, that the mobile 9823436809 that Rajwardhan had given Abrar was already used by the accused even before the blasts though the accused says that it was given to him after September 13, 2006. The order to intercept the phone by the additional secretary of Maharashtra government AP Sinha signed and promulgated on September 20, 2006 preceded the arrest of Abrar. Three, Malegaon blasts of 2006, the arms haul case of May 2006, the serial bomb blasts in local trains in Mumbai on July11, 2006 and the second bomb attack in Malegaon 2008 are interrelated and need a more comprehensive investigation and trial. As this is not possible with the conventional court trials it would be more suitable if a commission of inquiry of impartial and international jurists were to make the investigation. Four, huge amount of money was involved in the distribution of the bomb blasts and the cover up. A news paper from Mumbai claimed that Abrar had collected 65 lakh rupees from those mastermind based in Mumbai who financed the explosions. He even rode on a new Hero Honda from Mumbai to Malegaon with the amount in his dickey. That he even boasted that the bomb would go off although it would be more of a bang to create fear rather than kill on a mass scale. (2) Furthermore, where did the ATS get 25 lakh rupees that they paid to Abrar’s father in law to make him approver and also buy the family flats in central Mumbai and Bhiwandi. Then Abrar also says that senior police officers had told him on September 1, 2008 that they would remove from their path the new investigators [Hemant Karkare and his staff] who were refuting the investigation they had made. The assassination of Karkare proves them to be right. Such a serious matter of high treason requires a high judiciary process. That is what the NIA also realized when in reply to Dhan Singh’s appeal in the court to cancel the NIA investigation as null and void, the NIA told the court on July 22, 2013 that "It is a settled law. The re-investigation or fresh investigation can be done only as per the directions of higher judiciary."(3) Given the loss of credence in the IB and even CBI [which wasted three years and did not do a sincere investigation of Malegaon 2006 case] a more broad based investigation involving foreign jurists of international repute should be entrusted with investigation and trial of the case. ------- (1) http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/NewDelhi/Malegaon-explosions-probe-caught-in-a-maze/Article1-1072110.aspx June 20, 2013 HT. (2) Urdu Times October 16, 2006. (3) http://zeenews.india.com/news/maharashtra/no-re-investigation-conducted-in-2006-malegaon-blasts-nia_863902.html July 22, 2013.