Days after Swami Aseemanand confessed to his role in the 2007 Samjhauta blasts in front of a magistrate, the national investigation agency (NIA) got hot on the trail of his associates and announced a reward on three suspects. Out of them, two are also wanted by CBI in connection with the Mecca Masjid blast. The agency said they were likely to seek further remand of Swami Aseemanand to unravel the terror plot, who so far have been found involved in Ajmer, Malegaon, Mecca Masjid and Samjhauta blast.
Officials also said that they are considering to take over the probe into the murder of RSS pracharak Sunil Joshi, who was murdered in Madhya Pradesh and has emerged as the ‘key conspirator’ in the Hindu terror web, according to Aseemanand statements.
According to officials, the reward announced on Tuesday is among the highest bounty announced by the ministry of home affairs (MHA) in recent past. Fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim carries a reward of Rs 25 lakh while the Indian Mujahideen (IM) operative Riyaz and Iqbal Bhatkal carry a reward of Rs 5 lakh, each.
The NIA said a cash reward of Rs 10 lakh each was declared for information leading to the arrest of Sandeep Dange alias Parmanand and Ramchandra Kalsangra alias Vishnu Patel in connection with the 2007 Samjhauta Express blast case. Besides the two, the National Investigation Agency has also announced a cash reward of Rs 2 lakh for the arrest of Ashok, also wanted in connection with the same case. Dange and Kalsangra are also wanted in connection with Mecca Masjid blast and CBI probing the case has declared a reward of Rs 10 lakh each.
Aseemanand named Dange and Ramchandra as being instrumental in carrying out a number of blasts in the country including in the Samjhauta Express. The third suspect Ashok alias Amit alias Prince alias Sunny alias Ashwini alias Ashwini Chauhan carries a cash reward of Rs 2 lakh was also identified by Aseemanand after he was shown the photographs of the suspects by NIA. Aseemanand is believed to have met this third suspect in May 2006 along with Joshi and Lokesh Sharma, arrested by Rajasthan police. The NIA is investigating the case relating to the bomb blast in Atari Express in February 2007, which resulted in the death of 68 persons.