The room in which Dayanand Pandey, also known as Mahant Amritanand alias Sudhakar Dwivedi, often stayed at in a temple in Faridabad offers a glimpse into his mind. Among the belongings of Pandey, now in the custody of the Maharashtra ATS in connection with the Malegaon blast, lies a slim book—Yeeshu mein shaitaan hai. Its cover reads: Sonia ke khuda ka aadesh, surya-chandrama vah devi-devta pujko ko tum Isahi patharon se mar do (Sonia’s god has ordered Christians to kill the worshippers of the sun-moon and other gods and goddesses).

The book, in Oriya and Hindi, spews hate on Christians, calling attacks in the Northeast and other parts of the country the work of “Christian terrorists”. Then there is a newsletter, Sharada San-desh, of the Sharada Sarvogya Peeth, which has among other writings, Pandey’s interviews in which he talks of his visits to villages in Doda where “Hindus were being killed by terrorists”.

On Saturday, a Haryana police CID team was in the temple, searching his room for clues. The ATS believes the first of the pre-blasts meeting that Pandey called was held at this temple-complex and was attended by Lt Col Prasad Purohit, Pragya Singh Thakur and Sameer Kulkarni.

In the time that Pandey spent at the Mata Chakreshwar Hari Parbat Temple in Anangpur village in Faridabad, villagers say, he usually kept to his room, reading spiritual books, surfing on his two laptops and meeting high-profile bureaucrats and politicians.

They say Pandey would get many visitors at night in “big luxury cars” but he always refused to meet local residents. Pandey who travelled in a Mahendra Bolero, always had two disciples with him. “His disciples stayed with him all the time. If anyone came to meet him in the temple guesthouse, they would check with him first before letting them meet him. And he rarely said yes. He only met people he knew who would come at night. He said he was a Swami but he never organised any sabha or pooja here in the temple even though he stayed here for over 20 days,” said Meenu Hooda, Director of SOS Social and Medical Centre who also looks after the temple.

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