Author: TN Raghunatha
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: November 22, 2008
URL: http://dailypioneer.com/136178/ATS-finds-no-cluein-Purohit-laptop.html
On a day when a Nashik court transferred the
Malegaon blast case to the Mumbai-based special Maharashtra Control for Organised
Crime Act (MCOCA) court, the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) formally arrested
Abhinav Bharat's national coordinator Sudhakar Chaturvedi, whom a city court
remanded to ATS custody till December 3. Chaturvedi is the eleventh accused
in Malegaon blast case against whom the ATS has invoked MCOCA.
In a significant development, Lt Col Purohit
- in a written submission made to a Pune court on Friday - alleged that the
ATS interrogators had beaten him up and tried to coerce him into making a
confession, while he was in their custody. He, however, told the court he
had no grievances against the Pune police, in whose custody he was for two
days in an alleged cheating and forgery case.
"As they forced my client to make a confession
while in custody, the ATS interrogators even told him that he was free to
retract his confession subsequently in court. However, my client steadfastly
refused to sign the confessional statement," Lt Col Purohit's counsel
Shrikant Shivde told The Pioneer from Pune in the evening.
Earlier in the afternoon, Magistrate GG Italekar
remanded Purohit to 14-day judicial custody in the alleged cheating and forgery
case filed against him by a Pune resident Milind Date.
Making a case for Chaturvedi's ATS custody,
Special Public Prosecutor Rohini Salian informed a city special court that
key blast accused Purohit and Chaturvedi were in constant touch in connection
with arranging blast conspiracy meetings and that his custodial interrogation
would shed more light on what transpired in these meetings.
Alleging that his client had been "falsely
implicated" and that there was no evidence against him, Chaturvedi's
lawyer Naveen Chomal opposed his client's custody on the apprehension that
the ATS would torture him while in custody to extract a confessional statement.
In two related developments, one of the key
Malegaon blast accused Dayanand Pandey was subjected to narco analysis test
at the Forensic Science Laboratory in Bangalore and a team of police officials
from Hyderabad met the state ATS officials in Mumbai in connection with investigations
into the serial bomb blasts in the Andhra Pradesh capital in August 2007.
Hyderabad's is the fourth police team to have interacted with the Maharashtra
ATS officials. Earlier, police teams from Haryana, Gujarat and Rajasthan police
had met the ATS officials in Mumbai.
Meanwhile, investigations into the laptop
of arrested Purohit has shown that the Army officer apparently visited anti-Muslim
websites frequently but revealed nothing incriminating.
The laptop, handed over by the Army after
a week of Purohit's arrest, was examined at a forensic laboratory during which,
the probe agencies claimed that he was often visiting anti-Muslim and jehadi
websites, sources attached with the investigations said.
But, the investigators did not get details
about the composition about the saffron outfit -- Abhinav Bharat -- whose
cadre are alleged to be behind the blast in Malegaon on September 29 which
they were looking for.
Also, Dayanand Pandey underwent a narco analysis
test at the Forensic
Science Laboratory (FSL) in Mumbai, FSL sources
said. Pandey was subjected to the narco analysis test for about four hours,
the sources told PTI. FSL is yet to decide whether to subject Pandey to other
tests like polygraph and brain mapping, they said.
In Sonepat, throwing its weight behind the
Malegaon blast accused, including sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, a group of advocates
have set up a 17-member lawyers committee for providing legal assistance to
them. Stating that the Hindu Unification Movement Legal and Welfare Association
(HMLA) will provide legal assistance to the Sadhvi and other accused, Bhupeshwar
Dayal Gaur, a founder member of the association, said here today the committee
comprises 12 lawyers from the town alone. He said the Maharashtra ATS conducting
a probe into the September 29 blast, has already collected information about
the association and he, too, was interrogated in Delhi recently.
The BJP on Friday asserted it did not want
to interfere with investigations into the Malegaon blast but said Maharashtra
ATS should not "harass" saints and army personnel.
"We do not want to interfere with the
probe into the Melagaon blast but the ATS should not harass the saints and
Army personnel," BJP chief Rajnath Singh told mediapersons here.
