Lt Col Prasad Purohit, arrested in connection with the September 29 Malegaon blast, has told the CBI that he met RSS Sarsanghchalak K S Sudarshan in Jabalpur this year to complain about the activities of Sangh leader Indresh Kumar in Nepal. The radical Hindu group Abhinav Bharat had accused Indresh of “getting Hindus killed in Nepal”.

Purohit claimed that Shyam Apte, the Pune-based Hindu hardliner, called him up on February 1 and asked him to meet “Sudarshanji” in Jabalpur. RSS sources have confirmed to The Indian Express that the meeting with Sudarshan was fixed by a senior VHP leader. The subsequent arrest of Purohit rattled the RSS top brass and questions are now being asked about the VHP leader who arranged the meeting. RSS sources, however, said the date of the meeting was March 1.

Purohit told his interrogators that the meeting with Sudarshan lasted for 10 minutes during which the RSS chief noted “whatever I told about Indresh.” It is learnt that the Maoist crisis in Nepal became the main reason for differences between Indresh and the Abhinav Bharat group. While RSS and Indresh believed that democracy should be supported in Nepal and saved from both the Maoists and the monarch, the Abhinav Bharat group was in favour of helping King Gyanendra.