Swami Aseemanand alias Nabh Kumar Sarkar alias Jatin Chatterjee. The face of Hindu terror. He first appeared before the Metropolitan Magistrate (MM) Deepak Dabas on December 16, 2010. The investigation officer, Additional SP T Rajah Balaji, from the CBI accompanied him. The MM gave him two days to think and ‘reflect on whether he wants to give a statement/confession or not’. Two days later, on December 18, Aseemanand had not changed his mind — he was willing to confess voluntarily.
His reason? Aseemanand told him of a Muslim inmate, Kalim in Hyderabad’s Chanchalgudda district jail, who had taken care of him when he was lodged there. Kalim was arrested by the Hyderabad police in connection with the Mecca Masjid blast case and spent one and a half years in jail. Aseemanand said he was moved by Kalim’s behaviour. He said he wanted to confess so that the real culprits could be punished.
Aseemanand’s confession began with his early life in Kamarpukar in West Bengal, where he was one of six brothers. His early life was influenced by Swami Ramakrishna Paramhans and his world renowned disciple Swami Vivekanand. Kamarpukar is the birth place of Swami Ramakrishna Paramhans. As a student he was inducted into the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). A graduate in Physics, he did his post-grad at the University of Burdwan, and it was here that his association with the RSS got stronger. In 1975 he even spent four months in jail, although he only went on to work full time in 1977 with the RSS linked Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram (VKA).
His name Aseemanand was courtesy his guru Swami Parmanand in whose ashram in Bangram village of Burdwan, Aseemanand stayed till 1988. From there he moved in '88 to the Andaman and Nicobar islands to work with the local office of Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram.
In 1993, he came to the headquarters of VKA in Jaspurnagar in Chattisgarh. After two years, Aseemanand was sent to Dang district of Gujarat to work with tribals in the area. Local tribals told him that the Ramayana era mythological character Shabari used to live there. Aseemanand decided to build a Shabari temple there. Under the aegis of the RSS, in February 2006, they organised a Shabari Kumbh. It was the precursor to his first brush with the BJP, the political wing of the RSS, and the fiery sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, who worked with the BJP’s youth wing ABVP then, in 2003. In their second meeting, Pragya brought along Sunil Joshi, an RSS pracharak from Madhya Pradesh. Pragya introduced Joshi to Aseemanand as Manoj Kumar. Aseemanad later on came to know that Manoj’s real name was Sunil Joshi and that he is wanted in a murder case in Madhya Pradesh. They met at regular intervals, including at the Kumbh mela in Ujjain (MP) in April 2004, where Pragya had established the Jai Vande Matram, which she headed. Aseemanand spoke of how terror strikes on temples angered and frustrated them. In March 2006, Aseemanad told Pragya and Manoj that there was a need to give a fitting reply to the blast at the Sankat Mochan temple in Varanasi. Aseemanand gave `25,000 for buying weapons and other materials to Sunil Joshi. In the next few months, Aseemanand met with other members of Joshi’s group like Sandeep Dange, Ramji Kalsangra, Lokesh Sharam and Amit. In June 2006, Aseemanand and his group met at the house of Bharat Bhai Rateshwar in Valsad in Gujarat. In the meeting Aseemanad said there is a need to adopt policy of ‘a bomb for bomb’. Aseemanand suggested that since Malegaon is a Muslim dominated area, the first blast should happen there. His second choice was Hyderabad citing the reason that at the time of independence, the Nizam had decided to go with Pakistan. He also selected Ajmer to deter Hindus who throng the Dargah there. It was Sunil Joshi who suggested a strike at the Samjhauta Express as Pakistanis travel in the train. Joshi took the responsibility to divide the work and coordinate between members of the group. Thereafter, Joshi kept informing Assemanand after each terror strike took place and said that it was their handiwork. Aseemanand provided more money to him. After the October 2007 Ajmer blast, Joshi told him that top RSS leader Indresh Kumar had provided two Muslim boys for the terror strike. Aseemanand told him that if they got arrested they would divulge the name of Indresh Kumar. He told Joshi that Indresh can harm him. In December, 2007, Joshi was murdered in mysterious circumstances in Dewas, Madhya Pradesh.
Aseemanand also spoke of a meeting with Indresh Kumar during Shabari Kumbh in 2006. Here, Indresh told him that the ‘bomb for bomb’ policy was not Aseemanand’s mandate alone. Indresh told him that Sunil Joshi had been entrusted with the task. Aseemanand also claimed that Indresh had given `50,000 to Joshi in the presence of Bharat Bhai Rateshwar, who is now a witness in the Samjhauta case.
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Prasad Patil
Mumbai
After the confessional statement given by Swami Aseemanand before the court, and the court asking the CBI to reinvestigate the 2006 Malegaon blast case, several questions regarding the credibility of investigating agencies like the CBI and the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) who handled the case, have surfaced. If the claims and revelations made by Aseemanand in his confession about the involvement of Hindu radicals are proved in court, the 4000-page chargesheet filed in the case becomes a series of planted evidence and would damage the credibility of both the agencies. The findings of the ATS and CBI’s investigation and Aseemanand's confession contradict each other. Immediately after the blasts in Malegaon on September 8, 2006 the investigation was handed over to the Maharashtra ATS. The explosions had taken place in a Muslim cemetery, adjacent to a mosque, after the Friday prayers. Most of the 37 people, who lost their lives were Muslims.
During the earlier stages of the ATS’ investigation, many local Muslims brought to the notice of the investigators that Muslims would not carry out blasts in a mosque and kill people who had gathered for prayers. Though it was not a very convincing line of reasoning, since there have been blasts at mosques in Pakistan and Iran in the past, it was worth probing. However, the ATS followed only one lead, which was the possibility of the involvement of the Laskhar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) and the Students Islamic Movement of India. The ATS also ignored locals, who claimed to have found artificial beards at the site of blast. Later, the CBI took over the investigation from the ATS and the CBI too, followed the earlier line of investigation. The Maharashtra ATS and CBI had alleged that the bombs were manufactured by two Pakistani nationals. They further claimed that the conspiracy was hatched by locals in Malegaon in July 2006.
However, Aseemanand, in his confession said that the bombs were made and planted by slain RSS pracharak Sunil Joshi. He also said that the conspiracy was hatched in Gujarat. The ATS had arrested nine accused and recorded confessions of three of them. All three accused allegedly admitted their role in the conspiracy. Later, all of them retracted their confessions and claimed that their statements were obtained by the investigators forcefully. In all likelihood, Aseemanand will also retract his confession. Therefore, it is necessary for the CBI to find further evidence that will corroborate his confession.
Since Aseemanand made the confession on oath before the court and it gives a different direction to the investigation in the case so far, the CBI must follow that direction to fulfil its responsibility as a neutral and fare investigating agency. If this quest for truth belies the earlier course of investigation, the nine Muslim youths arrested earlier, deserve justice in terms of immediate release and monitory compensation. However, the biggest question lies ahead. Merely releasing Muslim boys and prosecuting Aseemanand and his associates will not serve justice. The officers, who implicated innocent persons should be prosecuted, for which there are enough provisions in the Indian Penal Code.