RSS not moved by Burney's apology; to pursue case

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangha on Tuesday rejected the apology tendered by Aziz Burney, the editor of an Urdu newspaper, for hinting in a book that the organisation was behind the 26/11 conspiracy and said that the criminal case against him would not be withdrawn.

"The apology tendered by Aziz Burney is in RSS' view not sufficient ground to withdraw the case registered against him in a Navi Mumbai court", senior RSS leader Ram Madhav said in New Delhi.

He said the charges against Burney are "much more serious" as his writings tantamount to treason and, hence, RSS would not accept his apology nor withdraw the case against him.

Burney hit national headlines in December 2010 when he wrote a book titled 'RSS Ka Shadyantra, 26/11 (RSS conspiracy, 26/11)' and invited Congress leader Digvijay Singh to its launch.

Burney had compiled his articles written on the 26/11 terror strikes and the conspiracy behind them into the book, where he had differed from the investigating agencies' conclusion that no saffron terror activists were involved in the carnage.

It was at this book's launch on December 6 where Singh had said that Mumbai Anti Terrorist Squad chief Hemant Karkare had called him, hours before he was killed in the terror attacks, to tell him about threats he had received for probing Hindu extremists and their terror links.

Burney, however, tendered an apology on January 29, saying that he would like to "clarify and apologise if he has hurt anyone by the title of his book and is happy to change the title" if that would assuage feelings.

Claiming that he did not want to weaken India's stand in the fight against terror or link RSS to the incident, he urged the organisation to withdraw the case registered against him.

RSS sources said that, notwithstanding Burney's apology, the complainant of the case Vinay Joshi is likely to send a legal notice via his lawyer to senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh for "joining the debate with Burney" and making public statements regarding RSS' alleged role in 26/11 conspiracy.