RSS leader demands apology from Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi after Malegaon blast witness' statement

After a witness in the 2008 Malegoan blast case deposed that he had been threatened to take the names of BJP and RSS leaders, senior RSS leader Indresh Kumar on Tuesday alleged that a dirty political conspiracy was hatched by the Congress during the UPA rule to implicate them in false cases of so-called saffron terror.

He demanded an apology from Congress leaders - former prime minister Manmohan Singh, party chief Sonia Gandhi, former Home Minister P Chidambaram, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Digvijay Singh and Salman Khurshid - for assassinating the character of BJP and RSS leaders.

Kumar's reaction came after a witness in the 2008 Malegoan blast case turned hostile and deposed in a court in Mumbai earlier in the day that the then senior ATS officer Param Bir Singh and another officer had threatened him to take the names of Yogi Adityanath, who is the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh at present, and four other RSS leaders, including Indresh Kumar.

Singh, who is facing extortion and other cases, was suspended this month.

'' It (deposition of the witness) has proved that all the cases of saffron terror (lodged) at that time were a conspiracy hatched by the Congress as part of its dirty politics,'' the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leader said in an audio message.

Kumar also slammed the other political parties and their leaders, ''who are now sitting in Opposition'', saying they had also committed ''a big sin and a crime'' as they stood by the Congress and its coalition government's ''dirty politics and conspiracy to falsely implicate the BJP and the RSS leaders'' in the so-called saffron terror cases.

In his deposition, the witness claimed the ATS tortured him and made him sit in its office illegally.

After his deposition, the court declared the witness hostile for making allegations against the ATS and denying that he made any statement before the anti-terror agency. As many as 220 witnesses have been examined in the case till now and 15 of them have turned hostile.

The then UPA regime applied ''all might'' to drag BJP and RSS leaders in the so-called saffron terror cases but could not list ''our names in any of the FIRs'' because they didn't have any evidence, Kumar claimed.

The Congress party and its government, though, kept on playing ''dirty politics'' of assassinating ''our character'' in the name of saffron terror, he charged.

''Manmohan Singh (former Prime Minister), (Congress leaders) Sonia Gandhi, P Chidambaram, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Salman (Khurshid), Digvijay Singh--all of them should apologise for committing such a big sin and a crime,'' he demanded.

Kumar, who is RSS national executive member, also appealed to the people to ''democratically'' teach a lesson to all those parties and leaders who were involved ''in the creation of saffron terror'' or supported ''such an inhuman politics''.

''It is the height of their shamelessness that they have not yet even apologised for hatching such a political conspiracy intended to commit atrocities (on the BJP and RSS leaders),'' he charged.

On September 29, 2008, six people were killed and over 100 injured when an explosive device strapped on a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Nashik's Malegaon town, located about 200 km from Mumbai.

The accused in the case include Lok Sabha member Pragya Singh Thakur, Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit, Shudakar Diwedi, Major Ramesh Upadhyay (retired), Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhakar Dwivedi, Sudhakar Chaturvedi and Sameer Kulkarni, all of whom are out on bail.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)