A senior RSS leader, Indresh Kumar, is among those named in the charge sheet, which says the blast at the Ajmer Dargah three years ago was the result of an elaborate conspiracy hatched by a group of Hindu radicals.
The chargesheet says:
- Indresh took part in a meeting in Jaipur on October 31, 2005 with seven others
- In the meeting he exhorted members to do radical acts
- Indresh said being part of religious organisations will help them avoid suspicion and accomplish their mission
- Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, an accused in the Malegaon blast case, was also present in that meeting.
Police say there is not enough evidence to frame charges against Indresh yet, but there's every possibility he will be questioned.
The Chief Minister of Rajasthan, Ashok Gehlot, says the RSS must accept the truth.
"The RSS should accept the truth which has come out," said Gehlot.
"The ATS has done a very good job as it was very important for the truth to come out and it is now in the open. A link was found between Ajmer Sharif blast, Jaipur and Malegaon blasts and the wrongdoers were caught. I think the ATS has done a good job for which even the central Government had thanked them," Gehlot added.
But the man in the eye of the storm, Indresh Kumar, claims he's being framed. "It is a political conspiracy," he told media persons.
The RSS has backed Indresh, but it's turning out to be a blame game between the Congress and the BJP.
"The RSS has been consistently working to undermine and upset the pluralistic ethos of India," said Manish Tewari, Congress Spokesperson.
"This is a political conspiracy to tarnish the image of organisations like RSS which is involved in nation building," said Nirmala Sitharaman, BJP Spokesperson.
The 806-page charge sheet was filed by the Anti-Terrorist Squad in the court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Jagendra Kumar Jain in connection with the blast on the premises of the Dargah of Khawaja Moinuddin Chishti that left three persons dead and 15 others injured.
The accused have been charged with sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 120B (conspiracy) and 295 (injuring or defiling place of worship) of IPC among others.
The prosecution has cited 133 witnesses. The court fixed October 26 for arguments on the charge sheet.
BJP defends bomber
Meanwhile Defending RSS leader Indresh Kumar, whose name figures in the Ajmer blast chargesheet, BJP on Saturday said there was nothing "substantial or credible" against him and accused the government of targeting nationalist organisations while keeping quite on Kashmiri separatists.
"According to our information Indresh Kumar has not been named as an accused in the chargesheet. There is nothing substantial or credible against him... No organisation has been named. How can anyone say that BJP or RSS is involved or that this is saffron terror," BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman said.
At the same time, she maintained that Kumar will defend himself "as a citizen" in court while RSS was "more equipped to talk" about its members figuring in the chargesheet.
Ahata-e-Noor, the site of the blast is surrounded by police. File photo
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