Centre in loop, ATS mines 40 hrs of taped Sadhvi calls

The Home Ministry is backing the investigation carried out by the Maharashtra ATS on the involvement of army officers in the Malegaon blasts that hinges on the 40 hrs of conversation recorded between Sadhvi Pragya Singh and Ramji Kalsangra.

The Home Ministry is backing the investigation carried out by the Maharashtra ATS on the involvement of army officers in the Malegaon blasts that hinges on the 40 hours of conversation recorded between Sadhvi Pragya Singh and Ramji Kalsangra.

Backed by the Intelligence Bureau, the Home Ministry wants the ATS to uncover the entire plot involving radical Hindu outfits. Joint Director (Operations), Intelligence Bureau, D.P. Sinha is coordinating with Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare to uncover the involvement of Army officers and the radical outfit, Abhinav Bharat, even though the Centre has advised the state police to exercise discretion.

Police officials said the key evidence in the Malegoan blasts investigation is the recorded conversation between Sadhvi Pragya Singh and Ramji Kalsangra, who is absconding. In the conversation, the sadhvi is heard asking Ramji how to prevent the police from knowing that the motorcycle used in the Malegaon blast was hers. The ATS has found 18 traces of RDX on the motorcycle.

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Lt Col Purohit is said to have sourced the RDX for the blast—he could have got it either from ordnance factories or pilfered it from the militants during his tenure in Kashmir. The Indian Ordnance Factories make two types of RDX explosive: one mixed with TNT in 60:40 ratio and the other mixed with beeswax in 88:12 ratio. The Army maintains a spectroscopic analysis of each manufactured lot and police sources say that it won’t be difficult to nail Purohit if the spectroscopy analysis of the RDX trace matches that in the ordnance records.

Meanwhile, after conducting an internal inquiry, the Army Headquarters reported that none of its personnel was involved with Lt Col Purohit, who was arrested for his alleged involvement in the Malegaon blast. North Block is not averse to the Maharashtra Police questioning two other officers, but till Friday night, the Army headquarters had not received any official request from the ATS.