New Delhi : Not just Muslims, Lt Colonel Prasad Srikant Purohit and his Abhinav Bharat also targeted Christians in several locations including Kandhamal in Orissa, North Karnataka, Pune, Jabalpur and Bhopal. And that Malegaon blast accused and Purohit’s key aide Sameer Kulkarni was allegedly behind the killing of two Christians in Orissa in August 2008.
This revelation comes in the Military Intelligence (MI) report of the Army based on the interrogation of Purohit, himself one of the prime accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast and a key link in the Hindu extremist network.
The report, a copy of which is with The Indian Express, said that Malegaon blast co-accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh confronted Purohit during his joint interrogation by MI, the Maharashtra ATS and the Intelligence Bureau at a safe house in Khandala on October 30, 2008.
“She mentioned that the Army officer had met her on October 5, 2008, and confessed to have orchestrated the Malegoan blast, killing of two persons in Orissa in August 2008 and arson in North Karnataka. The officer admitted to having made such statements to Sadhvi Pragya but attributed these outbursts to his boasting about the Malegaon incident. But, later, during the same confrontation he admitted that this outfit had killed two persons in Orissa through Sameer Kulkarni, a full-time activist of Abhinav Bharat,” the MI report stated.
Sameer Kulkarni was called Chanakya by Purohit, a generic name given to those part of the military wing of Abhinav Bharat.
“Responsible for covert operations, the RSS activist was instrumental in breaking influential RSS and VHP workers towards Abhinav Bharat. He is known to be associated with the core group who had undertaken the IED blast in Ajmer in 2007. In March 2008, he accompanied Ramji Kalsangra and Sandeep Dange to Purohit’s residence in Panchmarhi. Police records confirmed his involvement in anti-Christian riots in Pune, Jabalpur and Bhopal. Lt Col Purohit admitted that on behalf of Abhinav Bharat, Sameer killed two Christians in Orissa in August 2008. This act indicated that Lt Col Purohit wanted to establish an organisation with aggressive anti-Christian stance,” the MI report said.
That Abhinav Bharat had become the hub of ultra right Hindu forces is evident from the fact that extremist organisations like Sreeram Sena and Hindustan Rashtriya Sena wanted Purohit’s organisation to merge with their outfits.
“During December 22, 2007-January 2, 2008, Lt Col Purohit participated in a meeting called by Swami Aseemanand at Anil Mahajan’s house in Pune. The meeting was attended by Vilas Pawar of Sreeram Sena, Karnataka, Pramod Muttalik of Hindustan Rashtriya Sena, Bharat Rateshwar aka Bharat Bhai of Gujarat, Dr Seetharamaiah of Andhra Pradesh, Sudhakar Chaturvedi and Ajay Rahirkar. During the meeting, Swami Aseemanand made an attempt to merge Abhinav Bharat with existing organisations but consensus could not be reached,” the report stated.
