Mahant Amritanand alias Dayanand Pandey, arrested from Kanpur in connection with the September 29 Malegaon blast and suspected by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad to be the prime conspirator in the case, today denied all allegations against him when he was produced in a Nashik court, and accused the police of torturing him.

“Mera naam Dayanand Pandey nahin hai (My name is not Dayanand Pandey),” was the first thing the mahant told the judge. To which Special Public Prosecutor Ajay Misar said: “Sir, the accused has a lot of names and Pandey is one of them.”

Asked by Judge H K Ganatra if he had any complaints against the police, Pandey, dressed in a cream kurta-pyjama with his head covered with a black cloth, said: “I have been assaulted by the ATS since they took me into custody.”

When Ganatra asked Pandey to show him physical marks on his body if that was the case, Pandey said the investigators had been clever and had tortured him in such a way that there were no external physical injuries. The judge then took Pandey to his chamber, personally examined him, and dismissed the torture charges.

Defence lawyer A K Chhallani, appearing for Pandey, argued that the ATS was using third-degree methods to draw a link and prove the false allegations levelled against Pandey. He also referred to the application moved by family members of Lt Col Prasad Purohit alleging torture in police custody.

However, the court said the allegations made by Pandey were baseless and asked the ATS to go by the law. The court also sought the consent of Pandey to conduct forensic tests on him. “If the court feels by conducting the test the truth will come out then I am ready for any test,” Pandey said, after which he was remanded to police custody until November 26.