Mohan Bhagwat, chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), gave his blessings to a spate of terror attacks carried out in India between 2006 and 2008. What’s more, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had known about this when it arrested Swami Aseemanand, the prime accused in the Samjhauta Express blast case and two other cases, in 2010.
These are some of the claims that Aseemanand has made in a series of four long interviews he gave to The Caravan magazine from Ambala Central Jail between December 2011 and January 2014. The full article was published in the February issue of the magazine, and this week, The Caravan released the recorded audio clips from the interviews that highlight Aseemanand’s statements on the RSS’s role in the terror attacks.
You can listen to the audio clips here.
Aseemanand, who has worked for most of his life with the RSS’s tribal affairs wing, the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, is currently under trial in three cases of bombings that killed 82 people – the Samjhauta Express blasts in February 2007, the Mecca Masjid blasts in Hyderabad in May 2007 and the Ajmer dargah blast in October 2007.
In The Caravan interview, he told reporter Leena Gita Reghunath that in 2005, he and his accomplice Sunil Joshi allegedly had a meeting with Mohan Bhagwat (who was the RSS’s general secretary at that time) and Indresh Kumar (member of the organisation’s national executive council) in the Dangs district of Gujarat.
In that meeting, Reghunath writes, “Joshi informed Bhagwat of a plan to bomb several Muslim targets around India. According to Aseemanand, both RSS leaders approved, and Bhagwat told him, “You can work on this with Sunil. We will not be involved, but if you are doing this, you can consider us to be with you.”
According to Aseemanand, Bhagwat and Kumar also told him “If you do it, then people won’t say that we did a crime for the sake of committing a crime. It will be connected to the ideology. This is very important for Hindus. Please do this. You have our blessings.”
While Kumar’s name has come up during the investigation of the blast cases, the National Investigation Agency has not yet interrogated him. This is the first time, however, that someone as high up in the RSS as Bhagwat has been named in connection with the attacks. If Aseemanand formally makes these claims in a court of law, it could have serious consequences for the RSS, which has faced bans on a number of occasions in its 90-year history.
The Caravan reporter attempted to get a response from Bhagwat about Aseemanand’s statements but did not hear from him. However, Aseemanand’s claim that the CBI knew of his meeting with Bhagwat and Kumar in 2005 makes the case even more curious.
In the interview, Aseemanand told Reghunath that when he was arrested, “the CBI already knew the whole story.” In the excerpts of the interview transcript released by The Caravan, Aseemanand said that “I was surprised how CBI got to know all these things. That only me, Sunil, Bhagwatji and Indresh had met in a camp at the Shabri Dham...it was very surprising to me that how CBI knew about this.”
The Caravan article does not mention whether the reporter attempted to contact the CBI for its response. However, if Aseemanand’s claims are true, then it raises one big question – why has the CBI not yet interrogated the RSS chief?
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These are some of the claims that Aseemanand has made in a series of four long interviews he gave to The Caravan magazine from Ambala Central Jail between December 2011 and January 2014. The full article was published in the February issue of the magazine, and this week, The Caravan released the recorded audio clips from the interviews that highlight Aseemanand’s statements on the RSS’s role in the terror attacks.
You can listen to the audio clips here.
Aseemanand, who has worked for most of his life with the RSS’s tribal affairs wing, the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, is currently under trial in three cases of bombings that killed 82 people – the Samjhauta Express blasts in February 2007, the Mecca Masjid blasts in Hyderabad in May 2007 and the Ajmer dargah blast in October 2007.
In The Caravan interview, he told reporter Leena Gita Reghunath that in 2005, he and his accomplice Sunil Joshi allegedly had a meeting with Mohan Bhagwat (who was the RSS’s general secretary at that time) and Indresh Kumar (member of the organisation’s national executive council) in the Dangs district of Gujarat.
In that meeting, Reghunath writes, “Joshi informed Bhagwat of a plan to bomb several Muslim targets around India. According to Aseemanand, both RSS leaders approved, and Bhagwat told him, “You can work on this with Sunil. We will not be involved, but if you are doing this, you can consider us to be with you.”
According to Aseemanand, Bhagwat and Kumar also told him “If you do it, then people won’t say that we did a crime for the sake of committing a crime. It will be connected to the ideology. This is very important for Hindus. Please do this. You have our blessings.”
While Kumar’s name has come up during the investigation of the blast cases, the National Investigation Agency has not yet interrogated him. This is the first time, however, that someone as high up in the RSS as Bhagwat has been named in connection with the attacks. If Aseemanand formally makes these claims in a court of law, it could have serious consequences for the RSS, which has faced bans on a number of occasions in its 90-year history.
The Caravan reporter attempted to get a response from Bhagwat about Aseemanand’s statements but did not hear from him. However, Aseemanand’s claim that the CBI knew of his meeting with Bhagwat and Kumar in 2005 makes the case even more curious.
In the interview, Aseemanand told Reghunath that when he was arrested, “the CBI already knew the whole story.” In the excerpts of the interview transcript released by The Caravan, Aseemanand said that “I was surprised how CBI got to know all these things. That only me, Sunil, Bhagwatji and Indresh had met in a camp at the Shabri Dham...it was very surprising to me that how CBI knew about this.”
The Caravan article does not mention whether the reporter attempted to contact the CBI for its response. However, if Aseemanand’s claims are true, then it raises one big question – why has the CBI not yet interrogated the RSS chief?