Cops got Ajmer blast clues from Malegaon accused

JAIPUR: Rajasthan ATS got wind of the Ajmer blast conspirators while interrogating Malegaon blast accused Lt col Shrikant Purohit and Swami Dayanand Pandey in Mumbai last year. ATS claimed that the duo bomb had tipped them about Swami Aseemanand and Sunil Joshi, masterminds of the 2007 Ajmer dargah blast. ‘‘Purohit told ATS during interrogation that he hadoverheard Swami Aseemanand speaking on a mobile phone. He mentioned one SunilJoshi and expressed sorrow about the latter’s murder by SIMI activists,about two months after the Ajmer blast,’’ claimed the chargesheet.Aseemanand, a resident of Gujarat’s Dangs district, allegedlysaid during the conversation that Joshi’s killers must be traced as Joshiwas an important person after carrying out the Ajmer blast. Diaries seized byATS from Joshi’s house threw up four other names: Raj, Mehul, Ghanshyamand Ustad. But, they couldn’t be traced, claimed ATS.DuringUjjain Kumbh Mela in 2004, RSS grassroots members suggested that a blast beplanned at Ajmer dargah. All the accused along with other RSS members presentthen decided to trigger blasts at Muslim religious places across the country,the ATS claimed.During the investigation, ATS came to know ofDevendra Gupta, who had a fake license in the name of Manoj from a RegionalTransport Office in West Bengal. The fake licence, which had Joshi’sphoto, was used to buy SIM cards to trigger blasts. The Ajmer blast conspiracywas allegedly hatched at Devendra’s house. In October 2005,Joshi had come to Jaipur with six friends, including Lokesh Sharma, RamjiKalsangara, Shivam Dhakad, Samandar, Sandeep Dange and Pragya Singh. Theyallegedly held meeting with RSS leader Indresh Kumar in Jaipur’s GujaratiSamaj. They had checked in using fake names. To avoid suspicion, Indreshallegedly told them to pose as members of religious groups while visitingvarious cities for planning blasts. Joshi allegedly assignedspecific jobs to those who executed the blast. Lokesh and Ramji were supposed toarrange for the bombs and recce places at the Ajmer dargah where explosivescould be placed. Devendra and some others were told to get SIM cards and placethe bombs. After that, a series of meetings were held at Jamtada, Dumka,Chitara, Narayanpur and Dhanbad in Jharkhand as well as Asansol and Chitaranjanin WestBengal. In some of these places, meetings were held at RSS offices.