Nashik, November 15
Malegaon blast accused Lieutenant Colonel P S Purohit on Saturday was produced before a Nashik court. The court remanded him to police custody till November 18.

The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) claimed that Purohit supplied RDX for Samjhauta Express blast.

Public prosecutor Ajay Misar said Malegaon blast accused Lt Col Purohit had links in Samjautha Express blast. He handed RDX to one ‘Bhagwan’.

Ajay Misar further said Abhinav Bharat treasurer Ajay Rahirkar had handed Rs 2.5 lakh to Lt Col P S Purohit. Purohit denied being tortured by the ATS.

Purohit, who was with Military Intelligence, had told the authorities that he had thrown RDX into the Jhelum river, the special counsel said.

However, it is suspected that he transported the RDX to Deolali in Nashik, he said.

The ATS also told the court that it was investigating the source of the RDX which Purohit had obtained.

Purohit is also alleged to have conducted an arms and explosives training camp for members of right wing organisation Abhinav Bharat in Panchmarhi in Madhya Pradesh between October 16 and 21 2006, Misar said.

The public prosecutor told the court that they had found evidence of links between arrested Sadhvi Pragya Thakur Singh and religious leader Dayanand Pandey arrested in Kanpur.

The ATS has found during the course of the investigations that Pandey had introduced Purohit to Ramji Kalsangra who is wanted in the Malegaon blast, Misar said.

The court dismissed an application filed by Purohit’s father-in-law alleging torture in police custody after the army official denied it in the court. Medical records also did not show any evidence of physical torture.

The Maharashtra police are disturbed due to the insinuations made by political parties over the investigations into the September 29 Malegaon blasts, its chief A N Roy said on Saturday.

“We are disturbed by these insinuations... political parties should allow us to investigate without making such statements,” DGP Roy told a private news channel.

Stating that the probe into the blasts that claimed six lives is reaching its final stages, Roy said, adding “every arrest made in the case is backed by strong evidence.”

Roy’s remarks come in the backdrop of various political leaders, particularly those belonging to the Opposition Shiv Sena-BJP alliance, questioning the way the blast investigations are being carried out.

Purohit, is among those arrested in connection with the blasts, being probed by the state’s Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), in the weavers’ town of North Maharashtra. — PTI

New Delhi, November 15
The RSS has debunked the police charge in the September 29 Malegaon blasts case against its associates as “fantastic and half-baked conspiracy theory.”

The Sangh party organ the “Organiser” has launched a scathing criticism of the government and the police for implicating the Sangh associates in the Malegaon blasts. However, like the BJP, the Sangh mouthpiece has also refused to acknowledge any relations or links with Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, Lt Col Shrikant Purohit and Swami Amritanand, caught by the Maharashtra ATS in connection with the blasts.

It said, “The fables fed to the media on the Malegoan blasts case would not even stand the scrutiny of a Bollywood director,” adding further, “It is fantastic imagination to link such distant and independent individuals with a solitary half-baked conspiracy theory.”

Finding loopholes in the police theory, the “Organiser” said, “The Malegoan blasts, which claimed the lives of six Muslims, were described by the police as explosions caused by a “crude bomb” with no RDX in it. But now the Maharashtra ATS was charging Lt Col Purohit with providing RDX for the bomb.

The paper also pointed out that, “Ironically, it was mostly Hindus who lost their lives in the blasts across the country. But the ATS is charging Hindu groups, not even sparing religious leaders and a Sadhvi.

''She was repeatedly made to undergo lie-detector tests, polygraph and narco-analysis without her consent. She is only a suspect, not a convict,'' the paper said.

Defending Purohit and other retired Army officials, the Sangh mouthpiece says, “It is shocking that the allegations were made against retired and serving Army officials. The tests on Lt Col Purohit “proved futile” to establish his involvement in the crime.”

It also charged that “the UPA has been at odds with the defence forces” and accused the UPA government of seeking revenge against nationalist forces for demanding a stringent law against terror and action against jehadi forces.

It smelt a ''sinister plot'' of implicating the patriotic and nationalist forces and linking Hindu groups across the country from Nashik to Dang in Gujarat to Gorakhpur in UP to Jammu,” describing this as a major “conspiracy.”

It charged that “the UPA has done everything in its power to undermine the essence and sovereignty of India.''

Kasoli camp (Dantewada), November 15
Ramlal Lekam, a tribal living in this relief camp, wants to go back to his village Neeram. He has been living in the Kasoli camp, some 12 km off Barsur highway, for more than three years now.

Used to living life one with nature, Lekam now lives with his family in this Salwa Judum camp, 20 km from Geedam, in a neatly organised set-up guarded by the SSB.

Rows of small hutments in this camp house around 180 families and 700 inhabitants, all from villages beyond and adjacent to the Indravati river. For them, life here is organised, peaceful but not what it used to be back home. Leekam wants to go back, but knows what awaits him if he dares to do that. “We cannot go back now, we are identified,” he says.

Identified by the Naxals as ones who dared to go against them and seek protection from the state, Leekam says the Naxals will never forgive them for leaving the village. Similar is the case with Sairam from Chinger village.

Sairam walked 25 km to the safety of the camp when life became too tough to handle back home. He says he has 15 acres and a large number of cattle at home. “But there is no one to look after them in the village,” he says.

The camp at Kasoli can be termed as a relatively safer camp since it is located not too deep inside the threatened zone, but it has had its share of scares. It is among the 27 odd Salwa Judum camps in the Naxal-affected Bijapur, Dentewada and Narayanpur districts.

Those familiar with the Salwa Judum movement say that initially more than one lakh families had taken shelter in state-protected camps, but since then many decided to go back. The reason they say was that in either case it were tribals who were getting killed. Which is why many decided to seek forgiveness from the Naxals and go back.

The concept of Salwa Judum has had its share of criticism. There are allegations how security forces used tribals as human shields while carrying out operations against the Naxalites. Several Salwa Judum activists have also been killed in retaliatory attacks by the Naxalites. There are also stories of Salwa Judum activists creating trouble.

One of the camp inhabitants, who did not wish to be identified, says there initially were 300 families in the camp but many decided to leave and return home.

Experts also say that at present around 20,000 to 25,000 families are staying in the Salwa Judum camps with many preferring to go back home. As far as political leanings go, a majority praise the Raman Singh government, courtesy the Rs 3 rice scheme.

Sairam, Lekam and others living in the camp now work in nearby villages and government-run schemes like the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

Some are employed as special police officers to assist the paramilitary forces. They help the paramilitary forces in conducting patrols in forests and guarding camps. In all, life is hardly what it used to be some four years back for these tribals in Bastar.

Bhopal, November 15
The BJP will move the Election Commission against the “insult” of the national flag in advertisements issued by the government of India to mark India’s odyssey to the Moon. It is also sore that Prime minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi were taking credit for India’s foray into the lunar atmosphere when “it was A.B. Vajpayee who had dreamt of it”.

Talking to newspersons at the state BJP office here today, BJP general secretary in charge for Madhya Pradesh affairs Anant Kumar said in the advertisements published in newspapers all over the country, the “Ashok Chakra” was missing from the national tricolour. “This is an offence-legal as well as moral. And we are going to take up the issue with the EC and on other appropriate fora”, he said.

Mumbai, November 15
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray today surrendered before a Mumbai court in connection with a non-bailable warrant issued against him by a court in Jhakrhand. He was immediately taken into custody and released on transit bail on a personal surety of Rs 50,000.

Seeking bail, Thackeray's lawyers said they wanted transit bail for the politician, who would surrender before the Jharkhand court on his own and not travel to that state in police custody.The Jamshedpur court had issued the warrant against Raj Thackeray on September 30 after a petitioner sued the MNS leader for his alleged remarks on the chhath puja.

Though Thackeray had moved the Jharkhand High Court seeking a stay on the execution of the warrant against him, no relief was given to him when the matter was taken up on Friday. The court had adjourned the hearing to October 24. Thackeray's lawyers are expected to pursue legal options on Monday, party sources said.

Jogisar (Chhattisgarh), November 15
After the Modi mask in Gujarat, it is now Jogi mask in the tribal state of Chhattisgarh, facing two-phased Assembly polls.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s election strategies appears to have caught the fancy of political parties here.

Children are seen wearing masks of former Chief Minister Ajit Jogi in his paternal village Jogisar. The party has distributed large number of Jogi masks in all booths of the Marwahi constituency from where the veteran party leader contests the election in the second phase on November 20.

The full face covering masks made on a thick and glossy paper pictures a smiling and confident Jogi. Jogi (62) suffered serious spinal injuries in an accident in 2004, when his vehicle hit a tree in the Mahasamund constituency during a campaign tour. Jogi, who moves on a wheelchair, has been campaigning in Bastar, Bilaspur, Durg and Mahasamund.

A Congress supporter in Jogisar, Dilip Tiwari says, “The masks are for all villagers in fact. There are 10 booths in the village. Only our party is using the mask strategy here.”

Interestingly, after becoming an MLA from Marwahi in 2003 Assembly polls, Jogi had resigned within a year after being elected as MP from Mahasumund. Marwahi remained unrepresentative for last four years.

“We have to move in and around the villages wearing the mask and campaign for the party leader. This way small children will also be doing value addition to our campaign,” says Ashok Bhagat. — PTI

Bhopal, November 15
Plagued by dissidence, the Congress is going all out to woo back rebels who failed to make it to the candidates' list, with AICC leader Digvijay Singh citing the example of President Pratibha Patil, who was "denied a ticket" in 1998 but later "rewarded" with the nomination for the top post.

Addressing a poll meeting at Panchsheel Nagar on Friday night, Singh, in an apparent bid to placate former MLA P C Sharma who was denied the party ticket from Bhopal South-West seat said, "The Congress had denied the party ticket in 1998 even to President Pratibha Patil.

"But, less than a decade later, she was rewarded with the nomination for the post of the country's President because of her consistent loyalty to the party."

He urged Sharma, who was considered a strong contender for the seat, not to feel let down on being denied the ticket and asked him to work for the party to ensure the defeat of the communal forces.

To woo back candidates who have filed their nominations as Independents on being denied the party ticket, union commerce and industries minister Kamal Nath recently issued an appeal asking them to rally behind the party so that it can form a government in Madhya Pradesh.

Following an appeal, a known supporter of Kamal Nath, Asif Zaki, withdrew his nomination from one of the seats in Bhopal. — PTI