Nearly three months after arresting right-wing group member Pravin Mutalik, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) Thursday filed a chargesheet in a Mumbai court alleging he was a key conspirator in the Sep 29, 2008 Malegaon blast.
Absconding since the blast, Mutalik, an important functionary of Abhinav Bharat organisation, was arrested by the ATS from Gokak in Belgaum in Karnataka Jan 31.
The 2008 Malegaon blast in a crowded market place had killed six and injured over 100 people.
The ATS, in its supplementary chargesheet in the Malegaon blast case, charged Mutalik under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, the Explosive Substances Act, the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Describing Mutalik, an engineer, as a key link in the case, the ATS said that he worked as a personal secretary to the main accused, Lt. Col. S.P. Purohit, who is presently in judicial custody.
Mutalik allegedly assembled bombs and fuses at Purohit’s behest, aided and abetted other conspirators in the crime and a week before the blast, took the keys of the rented room of Sudhakar Chaturvedi – another accused – in Deolali (near Nashik) where the explosive device was assembled.
Earlier, in January 2009, the ATS filed a chargesheet with 4,500-plus pages in the case before the MCOCA court in Mumbai.
It named 11 accused, including Purohit, Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, self-proclaimed Shankaracharya Dayanand Pandey alias Sudhakar Dwivedi, Sameer Kulkarni, Rakesh Dhavade and others. It name two accused – Ramji Kalsangra and Sandeep Dange – as absconders.
