Blast suspects caught together on camera

New Delhi: The Maharashtra Police investigating the Malegaon blast may have got a boost in buttressing its claims that Hindu religious figures organised the bomb attack. The Anti-Terrorism Squad of the Maharashtra Police has found a video which shows Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, self-styled spiritual guru Dayanand Pandey and Sameer Kulkarni, leader of radical Hindu group, together on stage. All the three are currently under arrest and in judicial custody in connection with the blast. The video was taken on April 12, 2008 in Bhopal at a function organised by Kulkarni’s group Abhinav Bharat. Himani Savarkar, president of Abhinav Bharat and a relative of late Hindutva ideologue and freedom fighter Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. The ATS alleges Thakur’s motorbike was used in the blast in Malegaon on September 29 which killed five people. Thakur on Monday filed an affidavit in a Nashik court, which is hearing charges against her, accusing the ATS of torturing her and violating her human rights. Terming her arrest as "politically motivated", she said she was beaten up so badly that at one point, she contemplated committing suicide. Pandey, who heads the Sharda Samaghraha Peeth in Jammu Tawi and uses several names, has been booked for murder and attempt to murder in connection with the Malegaon blast case. Newspaper reports say Pandey’s involvement in the blast was revealed during interrogation of various persons arrested in connection with the Malegaon blast. Kulkarni is suspected to be one of the chief promoters of Abhinav Bharat and is believed to have been in Malegaon on September 29.

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