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‘Purohit Was Supplying Firearms For Money’

Excerpts from the confession statement of the two suspects arrested in the ’08 Malegaon blasts

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‘Purohit Was Supplying Firearms For Money’
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Sudhakar Dwivedi, Abhinav Bharat

“A meeting was held at Deolali near Nashik in August 2007. Lt Col Purohit, (Sudhakar) Chaturvedi and Maj (retd) Ramesh Upadhyay were present. It was discussed that something should be done during Urs in Panipat because the maximum number of cows are slaughtered there. Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur demanded that Purohit ‘supply explosives’ so that the group could do something against the killing of Hindus. Purohit promised to supply explosives. Chaturvedi took the responsibility of ‘getting two bomb planters’.

“Purohit was supplying firearms for money. One Ashok from Bhopal had got a weapon from him. This Ashok (had) deposited the money in Purohit’s ICICI Bank account. Purohit was also paid Rs 5 lakh for a ‘gun consignment’ in 2008 by a man. I had convinced Purohit to procure bomb-making material as Purohit had not been taking the sadhvi seriously.”

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The statement also has Dwivedi spilling the beans on detailed plans made to gun down RSS leader Indresh Kumar as Purohit and others believed he was taking money from the ISI.

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Dayanand Pandey, Abhinav Bharat

“In August 2008, I had gone to Pune where I met with RSS leader Shyam Apte who told me about (Indresh) Kumar and (Mohan) Bhagwat taking money from ISI. When Lt Col Srikant Purohit came to know this, he asked one Captain Joshi to murder the two. But Joshi was not able to execute the task which infuriated Apte.”

The Malegaon blasts conspiracy was hatched by Purohit and Sadhvi Pragya Singh who wanted to “take the lead in the cause of Hindutva and avenge the deaths of Hindus by Muslims”. In August 2007, “I met Purohit in Deolali camp where he told me about forming a right-wing group by the name Abhinav Bharat for promoting and safeguarding Hindutva”.

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In January 2008, “I attended a meeting of Abhinav Bharat in Faridabad” where Purohit, Sudhakar Chaturvedi and retired Major Ramesh Upadhyay were present. Here, Purohit spoke extensively about the “setting up of a Hindu rashtra”. Purohit also said he would “arrange for explosives which can be used to blast Muslim-dominated areas. Upadhyay then said that he can arrange for men to prepare the bombs”.

In June 2008, Pandey met the Sadhvi in Indore, who said that Purohit was not taking the cause seriously and asked him “to convince Purohit to arrange for the explosives immediately”.

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