RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and former Maharashtra ATS officer Mehboob Mujawar.
In a sensational claim after seven people were acquitted in the 2008 Malegaon blasts case, a former probe officer has alleged that the Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) was ordered to arrest Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat during the investigation.
Mehboob Mujawar, who was a part of the ATS team that investigated the blast, also claimed there was an attempt to take the probe in the "wrong direction" and that false cases were registered against him for objecting to the plan.
The former ATS officer's remarks came a day after a special court in Mumbai acquitted all seven accused, including former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Pragya Singh Thakur and Lt Col Prasad Purohit, in the case on the grounds that there was "no reliable and cogent" evidence against them.
Six people were killed when a bomb planted in a motorcycle exploded in a busy market in Malegaon, around 300 km from Mumbai, on September 29, 2008. The Maharashtra ATS investigated the blast before it was handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the country's top anti-terror body.
"The seniors had ordered the arrest of RSS Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat," Mr Mujawar told NDTV. Mr Bhagwat became the RSS chief in March 2009. "The then Chief Investigation Officer of the Malegaon blast, Param Bir Singh, ordered me to arrest RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat."
"Mohan Bhagwat was going to be included in the case to make it appear like a saffron terror case," he said. The BJP has in the past alleged that the investigation into the case was carried out with an intention to defame and frame right wing leaders and target the Hindu community.
"There was an attempt to conduct a fake probe into the Malegaon bomb blast but I was not ready for it. False cases were registered against me in this case but my name was cleared later," Mr Mujawar said.
He said the then Congress government in the state must have put pressure on the then officials in the case. He also said that he was aware of confidential information in the case. "I was doing my service. I knew these things were false, that's why cases were registered against me," he said.
Mr Mujawar was suspended by the then state government.
Reacting to his remarks, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said: "The 2008 conspiracy has been exposed. The then government created words like Hindu terror and saffron terrorism. At a time when there was a conversation about Islamic terrorism, those who voted for the government could not be made angry, that's the reason why Hindu terrorism theory was created."
Mr Singh was suspended in December 2021 amid allegations of misconduct during his term as Mumbai Police commissioner, after explosives were allegedly found outside Antilia, the Mumbai residence of industrialist Mukesh Ambani. Subsequently, he accused then Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh of extortion and interference. Mr Deshmukh was arrested but Mr Singh was booked by the state government on extortion and similar charges. The IPS officer retired in 2022. A year later, the Eknath Shinde government dropped all charges against him.
The blast in Malegaon took place during the holy month of Ramzan, just before the Navratri festival, the NIA pointed out, claiming the intention of the accused was to strike terror in a section of the Muslim community. The trial, which started in 2018, got over on April 19 this year. The prosecution presented 323 witnesses, of whom 37 turned hostile.
The special court, on Thursday, observed that while the prosecution had proven a bomb blast did occur, it failed to establish that the explosive was planted on the motorbike.
