NIA chargesheet in 2006 Malegaon blasts picks holes in ATS theory

The NIA's chargesheet in the 2006 Malegaon blasts mocks the investigation conducted by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad into the matter, reports Vicky Nanjappa 

If the court accepts the chargesheet prepared by the National Investigation Agency in the 2006 Malegaon blasts case, it’s bound to spell trouble for the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad. Ridiculing the probe conducted by the ATS, the probe agency points out that the accused in the case were arrested before the blasts in the powerloom town in Maharashtra. 

The chargesheet is expected to bring a major relief to nine Muslim youths who were released on bail in the case, but have not been exonerated yet.

According to the NIA chargesheet, the blasts, which killed 38 people outside a mosque in Malegaon, were carried out by Hindu extremists. 'Accused Shabbir Masiulla was taken into custody much before the attack was carried out. The ATS had accused Majeed of planting a bomb in Malegaon when he was in Yavatamal at the time of the blasts,' the chargesheet says.

The NIA states that Hindu extremists had conducted a survey of Malegaon on three occasions before the attack. Sunil Joshi, an alleged Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh activist (now dead), headed the operation. The four bombs planted at the blasts site were assembled in Indore and were transported to the town in a government bus.

'The planning was precise and this was a beginning of things to come. Joshi and his men had set up training camps in Dewas, Madhya Pradesh. They were imparting training in setting up arms and ammunition and combat, among other things, and had planned various other attacks,' the NIA says in its chargesheet.

'This training camp was set up in 2006 and a major part of the planning involved targeting religious places. Joshi’s agenda was to carry out a couple of assassinations, including that of Justice UC Banerjee, head of the Godhra commission of inquiry. A team was formed to go to Kolkata to assassinate him,' the chargesheet adds.

Image: A policeman walks past a clutter of torn slippers of blast victims inside a mosque in Malegaon on September 9, 2009' Photograph: Punit Paranjpe/Reuters