Mumbai: In a startling revelation, a former Maharashtra Police officer, who was part of the state Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), has claimed that he was asked to arrest RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat in connection with the 2008 Malegaon blast case.
In an exclusive conversation with India Today TV, retired police officer Mehboob Mujawar alleged that the directive by the Investigating Officer Paramveer Singh aimed to create the narrative of ‘saffron terror’ in India.
“I was directed by Paramveer Singh and those above him. They asked me to arrest these individuals — Ram Kalsangra, Sandip Dange, Dilip Patidar, and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat. It was beyond my capacity to arrest someone like Mohan Bhagwat, who holds significant influence in Maharashtra,” the officer said.
The police officer was speaking after Thursday’s the trial court verdict that acquitted all seven accused, including former BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur, in the blast that killed six people and injured over hundred. The court underlined the lack of credible evidence, procedural lapses, and unreliable witness testimonies that weakened the prosecution’s case.
Mujawar alleged that the verdict exposed the “fabricated investigation” conducted by a “fake officer”, further claiming that he was falsely implicated by the Investigating Officer for refusing to comply with his unlawful orders.
“They asked me to file a charge sheet showing dead people as alive. When I refused, the then IPS officer, Paramveer Singh, implicated me in a false case… I protested because I did not want to engage in false work, and as a result, fabricated cases were registered against me. I have been acquitted in all of them,” he continued.
Nearly 17 years after the blast in Malegaon town in northern Maharashtra, a special court in Mumbai on Thursday acquitted all the seven accused, including former BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur and Lt Col Prasad Purohit, noting there was “no reliable and cogent evidence” against them.
The ATS, which initially probed the incident, had alleged that the blast was carried out by individuals linked to a right-wing extremist group called ‘Abhinav Bharat’ and had claimed that the motorcycle used in the blast belonged to Pragya Singh Thakur and the explosive device was rigged by Colonel Purohit. It had alleged a larger conspiracy to create communal tensions.
However, the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which took over the probe, found major flaws in the ATS investigation and dropped charges under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), giving a clean chit to some of the accused.
The trial, which began in 2018, saw over 300 prosecution witnesses, with a significant number turning hostile. The NIA special court acquitted all seven accused, citing a lack of “cogent and reliable evidence” to prove the charges.
The judge noted that the prosecution had failed to establish that the bomb was fitted on the motorcycle, that the bike belonged to Thakur, or that Purohit had stored or assembled the explosives. The court also observed that “terrorism has no religion” and that a conviction cannot be based on “mere suspicion” or “moral perception.”
The court has also directed an inquiry into serious allegations against an ATS officer and the submission of allegedly fake medical certificates during the course of the investigation.
