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Tuesday, Nov 11, 2008
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Judicial custody for 5 Malegaon blast suspects

Rahi Gaikwad

Witness’ sealed statement submitted to court
No proof of prosecution claims: defence

Nashik: Five Malegaon blast suspects — Ajay Eknath Rahirkar, Jagdish Chintaman Mhatre, Rakesh Dattaram Dhawde, Sameer Kulkarni and Ramesh Upadhyay — have been remanded to judicial custody till November 17 by a Nashik court. Their police custody ended on Monday. Public prosecutor Ajay Misar had sought police custody for Dhawde and Rahirkar.

He said Rahirkar had allegedly given Rs. 1,95,000 to Kulkarni, Rs. 85,000 to Upadhyay, and Rs. 5 lakh to various persons at the behest of Lt. Col. Prasad Shrikant Purohit, who is in police custody. Rahirkar also transferred Rs. 10,73,200 through hawala channels. The public prosecutor submitted a sealed statement by a witness, whose name was not made public for security concerns. The statement, recorded under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code (pertaining to confessions and statements) by the Nagpur judicial magistrate, said huge amounts were transferred to the witness’ account in the State Bank of India’s Deccan branch in Pune.

After a search at Rahirkar’s house on November 4, Maharashtra’s Anti-Terrorism Squad recovered “account books, stamps, documents, a diary and the original trust deal of Abhinav Bharat,” Mr. Misar told the court. An amount of Rs. 70,500 allegedly owned by Abhinav Bharat was also recovered. The Pune-based organisation has been linked to the blast. Lt. Col. Purohit is reported to have set it up.

The verification of the accounts and Rahirkar’s narco test were still pending, said Mr. Misar. Whether the amount transferred through the hawala channel was used to procure weapons, RDX or other technology was yet to be probed. He said Rahirkar was in Indore for a meeting with one Shyam Apte.

Countering, defence said no proof was submitted to the court to prove that Rahirkar travelled to Indore. Counsel also disputed the date of the house search. As for the money recovered, he argued that Rahirkar was a well-to-do businessman and the cash was his personal property. Counsel, however, conceded that Rahirkar was a “treasurer” of the Pune-based Abhinav Bharat. He belonged to the Warkari sect, with no affiliation to Hindutva platforms.

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