A serving colonel with the Indian Army, Bapaditya Dhar, had participated in the conspiracy meeting attended by the September 2008-Malegaon blast accused, to convert India into a Hindu Rashtra, reported a national daily on January 30. Dhar, attached to Parachute regiment, was posted at Panchmadi in Madhya Pradesh. The meeting was held in 2007. Those present in the conspiracy meeting included Dayanand Pandey, Lt Col Prasad Purohit, Delhi-based doctor R P Singh and Dhar. At this meeting, however, there was no discussion about carrying out a blast, according to the chargesheet.
The Maharashtra anti-terrorism squad (ATS), which investigated the Malegaon blast, has made Dhar a witness. Purohit wanted to convert India into a Hindu Rashtra and Dhar has referred to their efforts as a “co-operative movement”. ATS decided to make Dhar not an accused since it did not posses enough evidence to link him with the blast conspiracy.
At the meeting, Purohit also read out the constitution they had drafted for the Hindu Rashtra. Purohit also proposed the idea of setting up NGOs like Save Tigers, Save Environment, Save Forests as a cover for pursuing their Hindutva agenda.
“We have to adopt such deceptive names. We gave weapon training under the banner of The Bastion Guards. We have not used Sangh’s (Parivar) name,” Purohit was seen saying in a video film. The film, shot by co-accused Shankaracharya Dayanand Pandey is part of the evidence in the trial.
“We have to start several units in different names like Save Tigers, Save Humans, Save Forests etc. We have to buy boats and will get photographs clicked with the boats saying we are life guards. No one should doubt us,” Purohit said in a meeting. Retired Major Ramesh Upaddhyay, another accused suggested that they should also start an NGO under the banner of Save Environment.