Author: Vaibhav Ganjapure
Publication: The Times of India
Date: November 1, 2008
Introduction: Bhonsala Military School Chairman
Admits RSS Influence, But Denies Any Ultra Links
The Bhonsala Military School, which claims
to shape bodies and minds for the Indian Army, admits it is managed by administrators
from the saffron fold but says that shouldn't taint it with a terror tag.
Satish Salpekar, chairman of the Nagpur institution,
on Friday denied the school had any role in training the terror suspects being
interrogated for the September 29 Malegaon blasts or that their meetings had
taken place on its premises.
He, however, admitted that the school administration
had given the premises, situated at Panchwati on Koradi Road (16 km from Nagpur),
free of cost to Bajrang Dal for a personality development camp in 2001. Incidentally,
Devendra Fadnavis, the MLA from West Nagpur is one of the two vice-presidents
of the school.
"The media reports are absolutely baseless
and absurd. Our premises was never used for any type of illegal activities.
We had only given our premises when our infrastructure was not fully developed.
Bajrang Dal conducts such training programmes every year all over the country.
Even the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) had conducted an enquiry about this camp
in July 2006 and it revealed nothing," Salpekar told TOI.
The chairman disclosed that the 2001 camp
was not monitored by the school authorities nor did they have the names of
activists who participated in the camp. "As per our records, around 100-115
Bajrang Dal activists from all over India participated in the 10 to 15-day
camp. The training was provided by their own people and it was conducted in
an open space adjacent to our school which was still under construction. I
am sure that no firearms training was provided," he said. "We're
ready to face any type of enquiry from any agency on this."
Though a couple of army officers are under
the ATS scanner for providing training in making bombs using the deadly RDX
to Malegaon accused Pragya Singh Thakur and her accomplices, Salpekar said
barring Major Prabhakar Kulkarni, the other two-Major Ramesh Upadhyay and
Major Y D Sahasrabuddhe-were not connected with BMS at all.
"Major Kulkarni was commandant at our
school and then became secretary from 1998 to 2003. But the 85-year-old retired
officer has absolutely no connection with any of the terrorist activities.
The ATS sleuths also went to Kulkarni's house to interrogate him. Currently,
we are not associated with him," said Salpekar.
He said it was after the confession of Sant
Kumar Bhate that BMS's name cropped up in the blasts.
