Shades of Hindutva terror, a dioramic contrast in framing innocent accused

No religion justifies terrorism. Nor can all the followers of any religion be terrorists. When the phenomenon of Hindutva terrorism surfaced at the time of arrest of Sadhvi Pragyasingh Thakur, Shankaracharya Swami Amrutanand Deoteerth [Dyanand Pandy] in October-November 2008there was some confusion in perception. Some of those arrested in Malegaon 2008 blasts like Lt Col Prasad Purohit, and some others like RP Singh, and still some others like absconding Ramji Kalsangra are extremists. They spite the Muslims in extremity. They would make bombs to blow and attack the minority or buy guns to spew death in crowds of Muslims. There are people like Himani Savarkar and Swami Asimanand that itch for bomb-for-bomb retaliation. It is in this context that India’s definition of terrorism got muddled. For, the Newtonian third law that the present prime minister of the country used when he let the Hindus vent their anger for three days against the Muslims in the late night meeting on February 27, 2002 that he was unleashing terrorism on the minority. He was the chief minister of the state of Gujarat. Instead of taking precaution of law and order situation of his state and having been sworn to protect the life of every citizen he let the Hindus kill Muslims. In the same meeting he instructed the police not to come in the way of the Hindu irate retaliation. He even subverted judiciary by all foul means to remain overtly clear of the blame of genocide. Who has the guts to call this terrorism? However, there are nuances of reaction. Such reaction is indeed terrorism. VD Savarkar supplied guns to kill the collector of Nasik and much later Mahatma Gandhi. If that was pre Independence history, contemporary situation is even more serious as extreme Hindutva groups under the aegis of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, like Bajrand Dal, Abhinav Bharat, is crystal clear. Its top leaders and second rung workers are clearly involved in terror. Mohan Bhagwat, Indresh Kumar, Swami Asimanand, Pravin Togadia, Narendra Modi have dossiers against them on their involvement in terror. There are such details in two recordings of Captain Nitin Joshi, one of 14-1(1)-2008 and another of 18-11-2008 as submitted to Deputy Commissioner of Police: 1. A certain Dr Dav had given affidavit to the Deputy Commissioner of Police against a man called Bhagwan who had been given RDX for attack on Samjhauta Express in February 2007. It was from the consignment that Purohit had stolen from the army when he was on duty in the Kashmir valley. Captain Nitin Joshi had seen the RDX in a room of Purohit’s bungalow in Pune. 2. Indresh Kumar had advised Hindutva terrorists to target Muslims and kill them in larger number and hide in temples. Kumar and Mohan Bhagwat had received 21 crore rupees from the Inter Services Intelligence of Pakistan. Joshi had heard a man say this when he was with Purohit in Purohit’s bungalow. Joshi is witness no. 55 in Malegaon 2008 attack case. Bhagwat now chief of RSS, Kumar and Ramji Kalsangra and many others are members of RSS. Their involvement in terrorism is direct. Witness no. 61 is Sham Apte in 2008 Malegaon attack case. He says that he had seen a secret dossier mentioning that ISI had given 21 crore to Kumar as head of the Muslim National Front, a sub group of RSS. “I consider this treachery to the nation,” asserts RSS leader Sham Apte. “I was so overwhelmed by shock that I said that we must arrange to kill Bhagwat and Kumar.” [1]However he also claimed in self defense that he did not really intend to kill them. This so upset Samir Kulkarni another accused in 2008 case that he appealed to the high court that there should be a case filed against Nitin Joshi for taking part in conspiracy to kill. It is clearly an attempt by an accused in support of another. There are other accused inside and outside jail or on parole that are doing the same work. In this Vikram Bhave figures prominently as does Amit Shah. Bhave was accused in the bomb blast on February 20, 2008, in Cineraj cinema in Panvel, Vashi theatre Vishnudas Bhave on May 31, 2008 and in the same week another attack in Gadkari Rangayatan theatre. He was arrested on June 16, 2008 and sentenced to ten years in prison. He wrote his book Malegaon bomb explosion, the invisible hand behind it. He has reproduced certain documents verbatim of which Sham Apte’s needs serious attention to know the shades of Hindutva terror. Purohit was a more diehard terrorist than is known and yet the army Court of Inquiry supported him. Sham Apte noted ambiguity as hall mark of his character. He had introduced himself as a major when he was just Lieutenant Colonel. When he went to meet Apte he did not make it clear as to who had recommended him to meet Apte. He introduced Apte to Swami Amrutanand Deoteerth, aka Shankaracharya whose real name is Dyanand Pandey. In July 2008 Shankaracharya of Peeth came to Pune and Apte arranged for his stay in Sarda’s house where industrialist Jindal donated ten lakh rupees of which 5 lakh went to the treasury of Abhinav Bharat and the remaining to the Shankaracharya. When the Shankaracharya visited Indore on August 1, 2008 Purohit arranged for travel of Apte and Ajay Rahirkar to fly in to visit the Shankaracharya. In the hotel Apte overheard Purohit asking for one lakh rupees from the holy man. There were greater frequency of meeting of Abhinav Bharat and RSS functionaries in August and September 2008 and so was more funding of money to AB and Purohit. Parallel to this was the growing and to an extent worked up concern for the displaced Pandit community. All this led to the blast of 2008 in Malegaon. Some of these details are in chapter 13 of Bhave’s book. His titling the chapter “RSS and Bomb Blast” confirms the South Virginia US think tank Terrorism Research Centre naming RSS as a terrorist organization. It is still a persisted belief in the establishment that neither the RSS nor Narendra Modi can be called terrorist. Even Bhave is ambiguous as is Apte. Apte has been an adherent of RSS. Apte had spent a long time in the US and when he returned India he found that RSS chey purvee vichar aani aata chey vichar yaant barchshi farkat aahe. “There is a sea of change in the mindset of RSS of yore and of today”.[2] It was a reference to how the so called patriotic organization had accepted money from Pakistan’s ISI to fund RSS run Rashtriya Muslim Manch. This he had read in the dossier that Purohit had handed him when the army man visited Apte at his house. He was shocked by the acceptance of huge amount by Sangh which in its inception was devoted to the moral development of the Hindus for the nation and its culture, he had believed till then. In one stroke the bribery had brought the RSS to the level of ISI. ISI kadun ghetlele paise munzhe deshase gaddari aahe. “Taking money from the ISI is a high treason against the country.” Next great shock for Apte was when he mentioned this moral turpitude to Mohan Bhagwat, he turned a deaf ear to it! Interestingly the chief of RSS at that time was K Sudarshan a staunch believer in the right wing ideology who of course ignored it. From the afore mentioned episode Bhave concludes that as the 9 accused in Malegaon 2006blasts were innocent though some were members of Students Islamic Movement of India. In the same way those accused in 2008 were Hindus though some were members of RSS and the law of parity should apply in the latter case, also. An affidavit is a court document submitted by one stating some truth he swears to put on record in a case of law. Courts in India have shown a tendency of not taking even very crucial affidavits on record. Judges have scanty regard for them when it comes to cases of terrorism. The affidavit of witness number 379 Atif in Malegaon 2006 blast case was the turning point in the investigation for the National Investigation Agency [NIA]. It showed beyond doubt that the nine accused were innocent because Atif was tortured 25 days to implicate the nine on the merit of his being a servant of the main accused Shabbir Masiullah in whose go down the bombs were said to have been assembled. ATS of Maharashtra and CBI had taken inordinate time to mull over the case because they had depended on Atif’s confessional statement which wrongfully played in the hands of the investigators when they framed the nine Muslims. Judge YD Shinde of the designated MCOCA court did not bother about the affidavits of others like Irfan Akeel and Shakeel Ahmad, Hamid Iqbal. If Atif’s statement is crucial then how did the police frame him? Abrar was a police informer who is alleged to have taken money to plant one of the bombs in 2006. Did he help in framing of Atif? His affidavit is even more controversial. He has revealed that he was used by the ATS and betrayed by them when he refused to be an approver. He has alleged in his statement that those who investigated 2006 blasts case had misled the inquiry and when Hemant Karkare became chief of ATS he came to know the truth and started investigation in the right direction. And most crucially the first group under KP Raghuvanshi wanted to liquidate those who were now reinvestigation in the right direction. What is the import of this? It is banal these days to say that the new Prime Minister from Hindu right has started saffronizing the government, education, perspective on terror and investigation therein and a host of other matters. It was already there when he was the chief minister of Gujarat for more than a decade and even beyond. When Savarkar supplied guns to kill the English it was an act of terrorism despite his being devoted to India. Those who shielded him from prosecution in the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi case or were concealing the role of the RSS activist Nathuram Godse as a cadet and member of RSS were also attempting to subvert the judiciary. Godse was a pracharak like Narendra Modi or Ramji Kalsangra. They are product of hate ideology and propagators of it. In the curious case of the first military officer in service accused of terrorism, Lt Col Prasad Purohit, it is not merely judicial subversion but infiltration of the hate ideology in the army and its extent that is worrisome. It can be seen in the affidavit of Captain [retired] Nitin Darratray Joshi submitted to the metropolitan magistrate at the court 18 in Girgaon, Mumbai on November 18, 2008. He was working at the Bhonsla Military School in Nasik when Purohit was stationed there. Purohit had given his room to Sudhakar Chaturvedi to assemble the bomb that blew up in Bhiku Chowk Malegaon on September 29, 2008. Joshi says that Purohit was excessively revengeful against Muslim and was extremely scornful to them. To take revenge he had bought two pistols and a revolver and ammunition to use on them in March/April 2006. Joshi had also seen ten kilograms of RDX in a room at the Pune bungalow of Purohit. Purohit had told Joshi that he had supplied RDX for the attack on Samjhauta Express for which innocent Muslims had to languish in prison. On 5th or 6th of July 2008 Purohit had told Joshi that in August or September there would be big action in Nasik which is the district place of Malegaon town. Joshi also mentions that Purohit had told him after the blast had taken place on September 29, 2008that he was behind the Malegaon blast. [3] Afterward Joshi retracted. This has become the standard practice in all such cases such as Swami Asimanand’s. Zahira Sheikh and a host of others and mostly and quinessentially under Modi rule in Gujrarat. This is on account of pressure and lure of money and promotion. RSS works in such devious manner. Another is intrigue. There was a standing enmity between Purohit and Colonel RK Srivastava. The colonel was jealous of the popularity of Purhot for his outstanding performance in army in killing many terrorists. He was also seriously injured and given option to go on pension but chose to serve the country by joining intelligence wing of the army in counter insurgency. Srivastava could not stomach this. So when the ATS contacted him regarding arrest of Purohit, he assaulted him. He even reported the matter to his superior through official means. [4] No officer opposed Srivastava when he sent the army men to arrest Purohit and handed him over Purohit to ATS. But strangely when the Court of Inquiry of the Army met the senior officers overwhelmingly supported Purohit. Furthermore, Vikram Bhave writes in his book what he as an accused and convicted is legally not supposed to write. But he praised the 9 accused because he found them good people falsely accused. He found them in vyatha or affliction. Their suffering and distress in jail is poignant because they were not involved in more than two organized crimes against which Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime ACT [MCOCA] was applied against them. In fact most of them were not having any previous record of crime. Bhave finds that the police had extracted confession from them under torture and threat that they would also be named as co accused in other terrorism cases. He found the Malegaon 2006 cases accused as industrious in jail as they kept to study of law and religion. They would inquire him and others after court hearing and suggest the Hindu accused how to make their lawyers argue on some points. It was Dr Farog Mugdumi who told NIA facts which the agency used against the case made up by the Maharashtra ATSAfter the confession of Swami Asimanand the media and human rights activists said that the confessions given by the nine accused in Malegaon 2006 were bogus. The point was that Raghuvansi had invited Purohit to train ATS in counter terrorism and hence the ATS was biased. On this ground the CBI was called to inquire but it simply rubber stamped the findings of ATS. After Asimanand retracted NIA continued to believe in the Muslims accused and held no objection to their bail. (a)Five days after the September 8, 2008 blasts, there was the discovery of a bomb at Mohammadiya mosque. The panchas or witness who gave witness to the clothes of the injured and dead of September 8 also gave witness to September 13 affair. How could these witnesses give on the same day witness in two different incidents of which the second happened on September 13, the day of the recording of evidence of the witness! (b) Witness 379 gave confession claiming that he had seen the 9 accused assembling bombs. ATS relied on him. CBI simply toed the line taken by ATS although it could not find 379. But NIA found him and interrogated. He told NIA that the ATS had extracted his confession by torturing him and obtained his signature. There is uniformity of being derelict in duty and very prompt or alert in the case of CBI and NIA. [5] (C) Mohammad Zahid Abdul Majid Ansari was one of the planters of the bomb ATS and CBI maintained. But NIA found him 400 kilometers away in Yawatmal at the time of the blasts. Nine witnesses gave evidence in support of the fact. Why did not ATS and CBI try to find the truth which Zahid must have told before NIA took over the case? In contrast to this is the claim of Pandit Chatuvedi accused in Malegaon 2008 blast that he had gone to Mirzapur his native place in UP when the blast took place on September 29, 2008. But nobody bothered about it. It would be decades when the witness that Chaturvedi had in his village would be traced and presented in the court. This believes Bhave would prove that accused no. one Pragyasingh Thakur to accused no.12 Praveen Takkali to be innocent. Therefore the NIA is delaying the charge sheet in 2008 case. [1] Vikram Vinay Bhave. Malegaon bombsphotmageel adrushy haat. Mumbai: Grukurpa Paristhan (2013) p. 92 [2] ibid p.88 [3] ibid. p 85 [4] ibid p. 56 [5] see Chapter 8