Hindutva extremists named by National Investigation Agency in the Samjhauta Express blast case also had plans to kill the chief guest of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in 2006 after the university changed its decision to invite BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi with that of a Muslim guest. In a statement given to the probe agency, one of the accused and a close associate of Sunil Joshi (dead) Shivam Dhakad is said to have given details on the plan to target AMU and other locations.
Dhakad, a resident of Dewas in Madhya Pradesh, is in Dewas prison after being arrested by Ujjain police on charges of murder. In judicial custody, he recently gave a statement to NIA, now part of the Samjhauta Express case. In his statement, Dhakad revealed that he had travelled to Kolkata for surveying house of Justice UC Banerjee in 2005 who was heading a commission on the Godhra riots and had plans to kill him.
The statement reveals that Dhakad and 12 others got arms and explosive training in 2006 in a forest near the Bagli-Dewas border. “Ramji (Kalsangra) had given us training of bomb-making and he had also given a demonstration to blast a bomb on a nearby hill. All of them practised pistol firing with air pistol and .32 bore pistol. Devender Upadhayay of village Bagli arranged for food for all,” reads the statement.