The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is likely to probe the disappearance of more than 850 tons of explosives while they were being transported to Madhya Pradesh from Rajasthan.
A Rajasthan anti-terrorist squad, along with Central investigating agencies probing the Ajmer, Mecca Masjid and Malegaon blasts cases, are already investigating whether right-wing outfits have something to do with the missing explosives.
According to sources, the Union home ministry is expected to soon order the NIA to probe how the explosives went missing. About 850 tons of explosives sent from a Rajasthan-based factory recently went missing on their way to Sagar district in MP. The explosives were worth Rs 2.5 crores, sources said. Instead of reaching Madhya Pradesh, the explosives reportedly found their way to Gujarat. Sources said a forensics report had established that the explosives used in the 2007 Ajmer blasts were procured from a factory located in Rajasthan.
It is reliably learnt that the Madhya Pradesh government has also requested the Centre to order an NIA probe. “It needs to be probed whether there is any link between the mysteriously missing explosives and the operations of right-wing outfits. Investigations have already established that the detonators used in the Surat blasts of 2008 were also made in the same Rajasthan factory whose consignment has gone missing,” sources said. Each bomb used in the Ajmer blasts contained 200 to 300 grams of “cyclotol” — an explosive mixture of RDX and TNT, the sources said.
Meanwhile, the CBI and the Rajasthan ATS may question some officials of the Jammu-based “Kashyapmeru Shankara-charya Amritanand Vedic Vishav Kalyana Trust”, reportedly founded by Swami Dayanand Pandey, the alleged mastermind of Malegaon blast.
Officials investigating the blasts cases say it is important to probe the network of Dayanand Pandey’s followers and the trust’s financial sources.