A blast at Malegaon near Nashik on September 29, 2008, killed six and injured over 100. (File) With a witness in the 2008 Malegaon blast case claiming that he was pressured by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) to name five RSS members, including Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, a BJP leader who is among those named by the witness on Thursday alleged that the Congress-led UPA government had forced the witness to “change the angle of the case” as part of its appeasement strategy.
According to Sunil Deodhar, BJP national secretary and former RSS Pracharak, the pressure on the witness was part of a “larger conspiracy to coin the word Hindu terror.” “The witness has given a statement that he was under pressure and torture to name five Hindu leaders — Yogi Adityanath, Indresh Kumar, Aseemanand, Sunil Deodhar and Kakkaji. I don’t know who this Kakkaji is,” Deodhar told The Indian Express.
According to him, after the Malegaon blast there was a ‘chintan baithak’ (brainstorming session) of the NCP in Alibaug, where party chief Sharad Pawar, he maintained, had said that Muslims could not do such a blast on a Friday, which the community holds as a pious day. “This shows there must be a different angle to this case,” Deodhar said. “At that time they (UPA) were in power. He had probably instigated a new angle. I wasn’t in BJP but was looking after Hindu Jagaran Manch of RSS in Mumbai. I was regularly exposing the then (Congress-led) Maha-rashtra government and their appeasement towards terrorist activ-
ities and protecting the terrorists.
“There was one SMS…that all Muslims are not terrorist but all terrorists are Muslims. This was because of the serial blasts across the country and those responsible were all Muslims. So there was a conspiracy to make Hindus also part of it. There was a larger conspiracy to coin the word ‘Hindu terror’. From the statements it is again proved that it was a conspiracy.” Deodhar, BJP’s Andhra Pradesh in-charge, said the witness’ statement has endorsed that the term Hindu terror was wrong and the then government had been misusing the investigative agencies against opposition party. “Using investigative agencies against the
Opposition is an age-old practice of the Congress. Obviously Pawar is also originally a Congressman,” he said.
Deodhar said his party does not have any hope of an “unholy alliance” in power in Maharashtra. “The Chief Minister or the government will not investigate it further because it would be pointing fingers at them,” he said.
A witness in the 2008 blast case has claimed that he was illegally detained for seven days by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in 2008 and pressured to name five RSS members, including Adityanath. The prosecution led by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has sought for the witness to be declared hostile for not supporting the case.
The witness was the 220th one to depose in the ongoing trial and the 15th so far to be declared hostile. The witness had claimed at the court that his statement was not recorded.
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