MUMBAI: In a startling revelation that rocked Maharashtra yesterday, the key accused in the last September’s Malegaon bomb blasts, Lt. Col. Prasad Purohit, associated with the hardcore militant Abhinav Bharat organization, and other 10 accused persons alleged that the Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray and his party were hand in gloves with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar and had patched up with him.
This information was revealed in a supplementary charge sheet filed by the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) of the Maharashtra police in the Special Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act (MCOCA) court in Mumbai on Wednesday.
Purohit, a serving officer in the Indian Army, and woman monk Pragya Thakur along with nine others, were arrested by the ATS a few months ago for their alleged involvement in the series of bomb blasts.
According to the charge sheet, Purohit, Hindu priest Dayanand Pande and retired Maj. Ramesh Upadhya and the others held a meeting in which relations and contacts between Thackeray and Dawood were discussed.
The Sena had established close relations with Dawood and his associates and was involved in extortion business with the underworld don, it is reported. “All the accused during the meeting vented their anger and accused Thackeray of betraying the Hindus,” the ATS reported the accused as saying in the charge sheet.
They revealed to the ATS that they discussed in a comprehensive manner as to how Thackeray and the Sena had extended cooperation to the underworld don and his associates in the rise of their nefarious activities.
Purohit lashed out at Thackeray and alleged that “in the daytime Thackeray raises the slogans calling for protecting the Hindus from Muslims, and as darkness spreads, he sits with Muslims. During the day, he blasts Muslims to appease the Hindus, but holds meetings with them and extends cooperation in the illegal business of the underworld during the dead of night,” the charge sheet mentioned.
