Author: OpIndia Staff
Publication: Opindia.com
Date: April 19, 2019
URL:      https://www.opindia.com/2019/04/here-is-what-rvs-mani-bureaucrat-of-congress-era-has-to-say-about-hemant-karkare-and-his-involvement-in-saffron-terror-narrative/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

Sadhvi Pragya, the sannyasin who was jailed, tortured and hounded by the Congress government in order to concoct a fallacious theory of ‘saffron terror’ has formally joined BJP and is all set to contest from Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh against Digvijay Singh, who was one of the foremost proponents of the saffron terror theory.

While Sadhvi Pragya’s candidature and her foray into politics ruffled some feathers and the “neutral” commentators came out of the woodworks to rain hate on her, it comes as no surprise that if anyone would be blunt about the Congress dispensation and how they concocted the saffron terror theory and their partners in crime in this misadventure, it would be Sadhvi Pragya.

Sadhvi Pragya blamed Hemant Karkare, the officer who was killed during the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attack of colluding to further the saffron terror narrative and keeping her falsely and illegally imprisoned. She said that when Karkare was told by someone in the investigative agency that Sadhvi should not be held without proof and that her detention is illegal, he said that he will get proof from somewhere, even if he has to create it, to keep her in jail. She also said that Karkare had been killed because she had cursed him.
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ANI @ANI
 #WATCH Pragya Singh Thakur:Maine kaha tera (Mumbai ATS chief late Hemant Karkare) sarvanash hoga.Theek sava mahine mein sutak lagta hai. Jis din main gayi thi us din iske sutak lag gaya tha.Aur theek sava mahine mein jis din atankwadiyon ne isko maara, us din uska anth hua (18.4)
11:20 AM - Apr 19, 2019
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The outrage on Sadhvi Pragya’s statement from the usual elements in the media was shrill.
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Abhisar Sharma @abhisar_sharma
 Will @BJP4India drop Pragya Thakur as its candidate from Bhopal after her disgraceful insult of Hemant Karkare, the man who died during the night of 26-11?She cursed him. Her family. And BJP leaders next to her clapped.
11:38 AM - Apr 19, 2019
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Citizen/नागरिक/Dost Rajdeep @sardesairajdeep
 Hemant Karkare died of his bad karma says the BJP candidate for Bhopal. Pragya Thakur... This about a man who was till yesterday a 26/11 ‘martyr’ and given  a state funeral.. and who can no longer speak to defend himself..
3:50 PM - Apr 19, 2019 · Mumbai, India
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Rana Ayyub @RanaAyyub
 Hemant Karkare gave this interview to me a day before he was martyred in 2008. He was being hounded by right wing outfits for his arrest of Pragya Thakur and Col.Purohit and other seers, a breakthrough expose of right wing terror in Indiahttps://www.countercurrents.org/ayyub291108.htm
2:44 PM - Apr 19, 2019
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However, beyond the “liberal” self-serving outrage, one needs to evaluate what has been alleged against Karkare. For that, we can rely on the account of an insider. RVS Mani is a former bureaucrat who worked as an undersecretary in the Home Ministry during the Congress era. In his book ‘Hindu Terror’, Mani has illustrated and explained the entire collusion and the players who colluded to create the ‘saffron terror’ narrative and how, senior Congress leaders and several others were involved in the conspiracy.

With reference to Hemant Karkare too, RVS Mani makes some startling revelations in his book.

RVS Mani describes his first encounter with Hemant Karkare in his book ‘Hindu Terror’.
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He informed me that I had been summoned by the Additional PS to the Union Home Minister immediately. There was a sense of urgency in his voice and demeanour. I asked him which Additional PS, as full Cabinet Ministers have a sanctioned retinue of 14-15 staff members. He took the name of one Babanagare. This friendly officer had been my colleague in the Lok Sabha Secretariat where I had been on deputation from 2000 to 2004. At that time he was working in the personal establishment of the Speaker. I enjoyed a level of comfort and familiarity with this functionary. Hence, with a relaxed mindset I walked over to his first-floor office from the Coffee House which was also located on the first floor. When I met this Addl Private Secretary, he shoved me into the room of the then Minister, Shivraj Patil.

In government there are these hierarchical protocols which are to be followed. The audibility remaining intact, distance from the chair of the Minister should be directly proportional to your status in the organisation, is an unwritten rule. When an Under Secretary is called by the Minister, which is it-self a rarest of rare occasion, firstly he is not to abruptly pull up a chair and sit on it. After being asked to sit, if the Minister so desires, he has to select a chair which is not very close but within the hearing range. Accordingly, I selected a chair and occupied it.

There were two other gentlemen sitting in the room, reclining on the sofa when I entered the room of the Home Minister. There was a familiar air between the three of them. One was a prominent politi-
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cal personality who would in the future overtly come out in support of perpetrators of terror attacks. He had been a former Chief Minister of the State of Madhya Pradesh, belonging to the same party to which the then Home Minister belonged. Of course, for the past decade-and-a-half, this party has not tasted any kind of electoral success in State assembly polls in MP. He had also become a vociferous supporter of certain groups who were in those days accused in terror attacks. Due to this, I could recognise him. He was Digvijay Singh.

The other gentleman sitting in the room was a stranger to me at that point of time. This stranger gentleman asked me about the details of the terror attacks in the then-recent past, what were the casualties, what was the then status of investigation(s) for each etc. From his demeanour and way of seeking information, I could deduce that he was a police officer. Much later during my tenure in the Ministry of Home Affairs, I could identify this officer. He unfortunately got killed in the 26/11 at-tacks. He was Hemant Karkare.

Thereafter, Digvijay Singh asked me for some more information.

I also informed them that other senior officers of the department would be arriving in Delhi from Islamabad in a few hours (of 1st June) but that submission of mine was not taken cognisance of. They were not even interested in knowing when the Home Secretary would be returning. During the whole interaction, the Home Minister appeared unconcerned and laid back while presiding over the
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'seeking of information' by the other two individuals.

From the intermittent conversation between the two individuals in the Minister's room it was clear that they were not happy with my information that 'a particular religious group was involved in most of the terror attacks'.

However, this was what the investigating agencies were furnishing the Internal Security Division with, as I had no other source of intelligence. But from the deliberation in the Home Minister's office it was clear that they were not happy with the intelligence input that Muslims were aiding terrorists. The way the information was sought from me made it very obvious that the source of this input was being deeply evaluated. There were repeated references to Nanded, Bajrang Dal etc. in their conversation.
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RVS Mani talks about his meeting with Hemant Karkare after the 2006 bomb blast at the RSS headquarters in Nagpur. He said he was working in Internal Security at the time and he was summoned by the Home Minister, Shivraj Patil. When he was ushered in, he saw Digvijay Singh in Shivraj Patil’s chamber and Hemant Karkare. He writes that Hemant Karkare and Digvijay Singh were interrogating him while Shivraj Patil watched unconcerned. They asked him several questions about the blast and RVS Mani writes that Hemant Karkare and Digvijay Singh were “not too happy with RVS Mani’s information that a ‘particular religious group’ was involved in most of the terror attacks.

He writes that from the conversation in the room, they were not happy that according to intelligence inputs, Muslims were aiding terrorists. He says that there were repeated references to Nanded, Bajrang Dal etc in their conversations.

He further talks about Nanded blast and says that this was the first case in which ‘Hindu terror’ term was first used.
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More importantly, the bonhomie between the two individuals other than the Home Minister was great and very visible. It may be interesting to recall that Digvijay Singh had later claimed in a media report that he was in personal touch with the police officer who was in the room of the Union Home Minister along with him at that time and obtained specific information on the Nanded attack. Singh had also declared the personal mobile number of this police officer in the media. This can be verified from media reports.

What was intriguing, which no one from the media or otherwise at that time asked, was: what was the relationship between a political leader and an Indian Police Service Officer of a neighbouring State cadre? Indeed, having been the Chief Minister of a State, Singh might have known many a police officer from his own State. But to be so friendly with a serving IPS officer of a neighbouring State is something that begs an answer. Without imputing motives to any individual, what was the police officer doing with a politician of a neighbouring State? AIS Conduct Rules expressly proscribe general hobnobbing of All-India Service personnel with political leaders except in discharge of functions.

Immediately after, within a few days, a 'Hindu Terror' case came on records. One Sameer Kulkarni of Nanded was allegedly storing explosives in his workshop, which exploded on 20.4.2006. Later, the case was handed over to the CBI. In the investigation, it was found that Kulkarni was actually running some small business in his workshop and as is generally prevalent, when there is lull in business in small towns, some people set fire to their workshops to make a false insur-
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ance claim. As per reports, Kulkarni used to also visit the Bajrang Dal office in Nanded.

The supervisory officer and senior management of CBI, however, refused to change their findings. An officer, who was tipped to be the next Director of the CBI, was penalised and not made the Director. There was no charge framed in this case by the CBI and the case was brought to an abrupt end. However, the facts can be verified from the media reports of the time.
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RVS Mani raises several questions on why Digvijay Singh and Hemant Karkare were as close as Singh had claimed.

RVS Mani writes, “It may be interesting to recall that Digvijay Singh had later claimed in a media report that he was in personal touch with the police officer who was in the room of the Union Home Minister along with him at that time and obtained specific information on the Nanded attack. Singh had also declared the personal mobile number of this police officer in the media. This can be verified from media reports”.

He further writes, “What was intriguing, which no one from the media or otherwise at that time asked, was: what was the relationship between a political leader and an Indian Police Service Officer of a neighbouring State cadre? Indeed, having been the Chief Minister of a State, Singh might have known many a police officer from his own State. But to be so friendly with a serving IPS officer of a neighbouring State is something that begs an answer. Without imputing motives to any individual, what was the police officer doing with a politician of a neighbouring State? AIS Conduct Rules expressly proscribe general hobnobbing of All-India Service personnel with political leaders except in the discharge of functions”.

RVS Mani in his book says that it was immediately after this that “Hindu Terror” bogey came into the record where it was claimed that one Sameer Kulkarni of Nanded was allegedly storing explosives in his workshop, which exploded on 20.4.2006.

In another part of the book, RVS Mani says that when Hemant Karkare was ATS chief, the evidence that Ahl-e-Hadith/Hadees were involved in the Malegaon blast was just tossed aside and the narrative was changed completely. Mani says that it was around this time that reports of the involvement of Hindu organisations were sent from Mumbai ATS to the Home Ministry and Sadhvi Pragya was named the prime accused. He says he is not aware whether the motorcycle, which was the prime evidence according to ATS (and was later explained as sold by Sadhvi Pragya) was planted or not but the time taken by the ATS raised questions. He says that during Mumbai blasts, it took the ATS over 5 months to make arrests while in the Malegaon case, the arrest of Lt Col Purohit took only 35 days.

Of course, it was later reported by the Media that NIA had reached the conclusion that the RDX was planted by Maharashtra ATS to frame Col Purohit.