Haridwar, November 19
In a secret operation, a Central Bureau of Investigation team raided a Haridwar ‘ashram’ and took into custody evasive Jatin Chatterjee alias Swami Asimanand and his aide for their alleged involvement in Mecca Masjid (Hyderabad), Ajmer and Malegaon blast cases.
According to information, the five-member CBI team from New Delhi swooped on suburban Bahadrabad-based ashram, situated at Atmalpur Baungla village near here, late last night and arrested Chatterjee and his aide Brahmanand. The duo was interrogated prior to being arrested.
Asimanand is considered as an ideologue by Abhinav Bharat, an organisation alleged to be behind the Malegaon blast in Maharashtra in 2008.
As the CBI operation was a top secret owing to the sensitivity of the case, initially even the Haridwar police was unaware of the proceedings. Swami Asimanand, it is learnt, had been staying in the area for the past one week. And the local police’s not knowing anything about the blast suspects is being considered as an intelligence failure.
Police said the CBI had received some intelligence inputs about the suspects hiding in Haridwar. A passport issued by authorities in Kolkata, a ration card and a voter identity card (issued by Haridwar officials) were also seized from their possession.
As per sources at another ashram here, Swami Asimanand had come to Haridwar on November 12 to attend a religious function. Here, he was taken ill and had been residing at the ashram ever since.
