MUMBAI: A day after a special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court acquitted former BJP MP Pragya Thakur, Army officer Lt Col Prakash Purohit and five others in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, a retired police officer stirred fresh controversy on Friday, claiming former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh and his seniors in the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad had asked him to arrest Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat while investigation was underway, to bolster the “saffron terror” narrative.
Singh, who was then an additional commissioner of police with the Maharashtra ATS, denied the charge and said the officer, Mehboob Mujawar, was never a part of the ATS.
On Friday, speaking on the phone from his residence in Solapur, Mujawar told HT that while he was working with the ATS, Singh and his seniors had directed him to arrest the RSS chief and the two wanted accused in the case, Ramchandra Kalsangra and Sandeep Dange, who allegedly planted the bomb in Malegaon that killed six people. Both Kalsangra and Dange have been at large since 2008.
“Singh and his seniors had asked me to arrest Bhagwat to create a ‘saffron terror’ narrative. But I did not obey the order as it was issued orally, and there was no written communication,” he said.
Param Bir Singh, however, denied the allegation. “He (Mujawar) is a disgraced policeman who is being opportunistic,” he told HT. “Names of RSS leaders never came up in our investigation. The NIA had also examined him (Mujawar) but his claims turned out to be totally bogus.”
Singh also claimed that Mujawar was never part of the ATS.
“Mr Hemant Karkare (then ATS chief) got him involved on the recommendation of then Solapur superintendent of police to help with detection (of the bomb blast case). But he never participated in the investigation and indulged in some criminal activities. I remember that some offence was registered against him in Solapur and the commissioner of police, Solapur had sacked him.”
Singh added that Karkare was leading the investigation of the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case, and he was additional CP, ATS, only for Mumbai. “This investigation was not under my supervision ever. I was only assisting Mr Karkare whenever asked by him,” he said.
The NIA court, in its order on Thursday, stated that Mujawar was very much “a member of ATS team” and he had investigated the Malegaon blast case “as per the directions of his superior officer”.
Mujawar conceded that he was booked under the Arms Act and accused of having disproportionate assets, but said he was implicated in those cases after he refused to obey Singh’s instructions.
“Apart from arresting Bhagwat, I was asked to show that Ramchandra Kalsangra and Sandeep Dange, who were both killed by ATS officers and shown among the victims of the 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai, were still alive,” he said.
In his statement before the NIA, which took over the investigation into the Malegaon blast in 2011, Mujawar had sought a probe into the post-mortem reports of 26/11 victims and suggested that DNA samples from the two dead bodies be obtained for verification.
Both Kalsangra and Dange, based in Indore, were aides of former BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur. Ramchandra used to work with his brother Shivnarayan as an electronic contractor while Dange was associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and had completed a course in information technology. According to the ATS, they had planted the bomb on the motorcycle parked outside the mosque in Malegaon, which killed six people and injured 95 others.
Even as the NIA has got red corner notices issued against the duo, and declared a ₹10 lakh reward for anyone who provided information relating to them, their family members have lost hopes of seeing them again.
“My elder brother Ramchandra (Ramji) Kalsangra and Sandeep Dange were detained by Maharashtra ATS on October 10, 2008. We have no information about them,” said Ramji’s brother Shivnarayan Kalsangra, who too was arrested in the Malegaon bomb blast case, but was later discharged. He now works as a real estate agent in Indore.
“It was a completely fabricated case. I was arrested and was behind bars for 34 months. They planted timers at our home claiming that we had supplied timers for the bomb,” said Shivnarayan, who was arrested by ATS along with Pragya Singh Thakur. He got bail in 2011 from the Bombay high court due to lack of sufficient evidence and was discharged by the special NIA court in 2017.