However, Purohit in his statement to the ATS said that he had thrown the 60 kg of RDX into the Jhelum river instead of depositing it in the army depot.

The ATS is also probing the role of a Nashik-based builder who was paid Rs 2.5 lakh by Ajay Rahirkar at the behest of Purohit. The police have already said that funds amounting to lakhs were routed to Rahirkar through hawala channels. Rahirkar, in turn, transferred part of it to Pandey and Purohit’s accounts.

The Haryana police probing the Samjhauta blast (which happened in Panipat in Haryana) are now counting on finding new clues when they get to question Mahant Amritanand alias Dayanand Pandey on Sunday.

The Samjhauta probe trail had reached a dead-end in Indore, but the initial line of investigations was very SIMI-centric as several SIMI leaders including Safdar Nagori came from that area.

Madhya Pradesh police officials involved in the probe last year said that when a SIMI connection failed to emerge, suggestions were made to examine the possible involvement of Hindu right wing groups, but it was not taken up then. Haryana police confirmed the SIMI angle was ruled out after investigations.

A mix of high- and low-intensity explosives was used in the blast on the Indo-Pak friendship train which killed 68 — 42 of them Pakistanis. While a larger quantity of Potassium Chlorate and Sulphur were used to create the bomb, minor quantities of RDX were also found in the bomb, Dr. R K Koshal, ballistic expert from Haryana’s Forensic Science Laboratory confirmed. The use of RDX in ‘traces’ was also seen in explosives used in Mecca Masjid blast in Hyderabad in May 2007 and also in the Malegaon blast.

... contd.