Mumbai: A retired police inspector, who was part of the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) team that initially investigated the 2008 Malegaon blast, has made explosive claims, alleging that he was instructed to arrest Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat as part of a purported attempt to establish the narrative of “saffron terror.”
Speaking in Solapur on Thursday, retired Inspector Mehiboob Mujawar claimed the orders were issued with the objective of creating a false narrative. Reacting to the trial court’s verdict acquitting all seven accused, including BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur, Mujawar said the judgment had undone the “fake things” carried out by the ATS during its investigation.
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Mujawar further alleged that the investigation was led by a “fake officer” and called the entire probe a sham. “The verdict exposed the fake investigation done by a fake officer,” he said, naming a senior official. He claimed that he was given confidential instructions to target several individuals, including Ram Kalsangra, Sandip Dange, Dilip Patidar, and Bhagwat. “I was asked to go and catch Mohan Bhagwat,” he said.
He clarified that he did not carry out the orders, calling them “horrific” and beyond reason. “It was beyond my capacity to apprehend a towering personality like Mohan Bhagwat. As I did not follow the orders, a false case was registered against me and it destroyed my career of 40 years,” Mujawar said, alleging that he has documentary evidence to support his claims.
“I cannot say what investigation the ATS did then and why… but these orders were not such that one could follow them,” he added. Emphatically denying the existence of “saffron terror,” he concluded, “There was no saffron terrorism. Everything was fake.” The Malegaon blast case, initially investigated by the ATS, was later transferred to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
“There was no saffron terrorism. Everything was fake,” he said. A special NIA court cleared former BJP MP Pragya Thakur lieutenant colonel Prasad Purohit and five others citing a lack of “reliable and cogent evidence” and procedural lapses. On September 29, 2008, six people were killed and several others injured when a bomb allegedly strapped to a motorcycle detonated near a mosque in Malegaon city, Nashik, during Ramzan and on the eve of Navratri.
The ATS alleged that the motorcycle belonged to Thakur, and that Purohit brought RDX from Jammu and Kashmir and stored it in his home. The investigation, led initially by the Maharashtra ATS under the late Hemant Karkare, led to the arrest of Thakur and Purohit in late 2008.
