Investigators probing the Hindutva terror blasts that rocked Ajmer Sharif in Rajasthan and Hyderabad's Mecca Masjid are untangling a complex web of SIM card transfers, pointing the finger of suspicion to a senior RSS functionary.
Ashok Varshney, former prant pracharak of the RSS in Jharkhand, allegedly sourced and handed over two SIM cards to Devender Gupta, key accused in the October 11, 2007, Ajmer Sharif blast, investigators said. These SIM cards were also allegedly used to stage the May 18, 2007, Mecca Masjid explosion. As many as 17 people died in the two terror strikes.
Investigators said they were still in the process of gathering evidence on the exact usage of the SIM cards in the two strikes, and added these might have been used to trigger the low- intensity explosions at both places.
These SIMs were procured from Hyderabad and Ajmer and passed on to Gupta, also an RSS worker. Rajasthan Police arrested Gupta with two others on April 30 this year in connection with the terror strike at the Ajmer Sharif dargah , allegedly masterminded by Hindutva activists.
Acting on specific leads, the anti-terrorism squads (ATS) of Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), have questioned Varshney as well as RSS central committee member Ashok Berry several times since June 21 both at Lucknow and Delhi.
Investigators said they had confronted Varshney and Berry on the SIM card purchases, but both stoutly denied the charges and insisted that Gupta had acted on his own. Varshney's defence has all along been that he was never present at either of the blast sites - Ajmer and Hyderabad - and, therefore, could not have sourced the cards.
ATS officials had said Gupta had procured at least one SIM card from Dumka near Jamtara in Jharkhand. In all, nine SIM cards were procured from various locations in West Bengal and Jharkhand, in addition to Hyderabad and Ajmer. However, it is not known which of these were utilised to trigger the blasts.
Despite Varshney's dogged denials, the CBI insists that it sees similarities between the mobile phone- detonated explosives used in Ajmer and Hyderabad, and that it was more than likely that the same module was working on putting the bombs together. In fact, CBI director Ashwani Kumar has confirmed this on record.
"There is a definite link between the Ajmer and Mecca Masjid blasts," he said recently. He had specifically named Sunil Joshi, another RSS activist. "He played a key role in orchestrating the Ajmer blast… and a set of mobile SIM cards were used to activate the bombs, first in Ajmer and then again in Hyderabad," Kumar said.
Though Varshney denied any involvement in sourcing the SIM cards, both he and Berry acknowledged their association with Gupta. In fact, before his arrest on April 30, Gupta had stayed at Varshney's Kanpur home. From there, he went to Sitapur where Hindutva leaders had arranged a safe house for him.
A CBI team traced these links and arrived at Sitapur recently looking for more evidence against Varshney and Berry. Following these leads, CBI summoned the RSS leaders last week to Delhi and questioned them further, looking to piece together strands of the conspiracy that led to the terror strikes at Ajmer, Hyderabad and Malegaon in Maharashtra.
Investigators now concede that as they dig further, more rightwing Hindutva leaders are likely to come under the scanner. The RSS would find it difficult to deny their association with Varshney and Berry.
Berry was, till now, the kshetra pracharak (regional in-charge) of Uttar Pradesh. He is also a member of the RSS national executive, which has between 15 and 20 members. Varshney was the prant pracharak (state incharge) of Jharkhand.
Therefore, in a meeting between top RSS functionary Madan Das Debi with the BJP brass - Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, Ananth Kumar and organisation secretary Ram Lal - on July 7, the discussion reportedly centred around future strategy depending on how deep the Congress-led government would dig in probing the RSS for terror links.
Subsequent to this meeting, Varshney reportedly met with Jaitley, but the BJP chose to not comment on the meeting saying nothing of this sort had happened.
The "political and legal" ramifications of the investigating agencies probing Sangh links with terror strikes, especially regarding Malegaon, Mecca Masjid and Ajmer blasts were discussed.
The RSS, however, has completely denied all association with any terror outfit. "The position of the Sangh was articulated by our sarkaryavah Bhaiyyaji Joshi some time back," RSS spokesperson Manmohan Vaidya said. "We maintain that terrorism should be dealt with strongly. The Sangh is a cultural organisation and we have nothing to do with any of these activities. The RSS denounces violence of any kind."
On the other hand, BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad was ambivalent whether the party will provide legal assistance to the RSS functionaries accused of terror links. "It is the right of every accused to have legal assistance. But where does the question of the RSS needing legal help arise? As far as the BJP is concerned, our position on terrorism remains the same, that it should be dealt with strongly and that the government should not play vote bank politics," Prasad said.
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