After the arrest of a once-fiesty sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur with links to saffron groups, the Malegaon bomb blast case has taken another ugly turn, involving retired major of Indian Army.
MUMBAI: Mumbai’s anti-terrorism squad (ATS), which is investigating the Malegaon blast case, that killed six people ahead of Id, detained three people, including an ex-Army officer and a retired jawan on Saturday.
After the arrest of a once-fiesty sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur with links to saffron groups, the Malegaon bomb blast case has taken another ugly turn, involving retired major of Indian Army.
Police are trying to ascertain whether these men helped the terrorists who set off a motorcycle bomb in the communally-sensitive textile town.
The ATS on Thursday arrested three suspects, including sadhvi Prayga Singh Thakur (38), a former national executive secretary of Akhil Bharatya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), her associates Shamlal Bhavar Sahu (42) and Shiv Narayan Singh (36). They were accused of plotting as well as planting the bomb at Bhikku Chowk in central Malegaon, metres away from a local police station.
The ATS is investigating the source of RDX used in the blast and how the accused acquired expertise to execute the blasts, an officer said. “It is not easy for a layman to procure RDX and use it to cause an explosion. One needs some training and it is being investigated,” he added.
ATS senior officers, however, were tightlipped-about the detention. No information was available on the third person.
