Purohit had RDX: Bhonsala instructor

NEW DELHI: Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad���s (ATS) investigation into Lt Col Shrikant Prasad Purohit���s involvement in terror activities got a boost on Tuesday when an instructor at Nashik���s Bhonsala Military Training School recorded a statement with the police that the Malegoan blast suspect had confided in him about possessing RDX.

Captain Nitin Joshi of the military training school told the police that the Lt Col had told him more than once that he was in the possession of RDX. This statement comes at a time when the ATS is being accused of ���politically calibrated��� investigations into the Malegaon blast. The statement was recorded under Section 164 of the CrPC.

Purohit was on Tuesday taken into custody by the Pune Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in a case of submitting fake documents and cheating. This was after his police custody in connection with the Malegaon blast case ended on Tuesday. Purohit, arrested earlier this month, was produced before a Nashik court where the Mumbai ATS sought his judicial custody, which was granted till November 29.

However, the Pune ATS moved an application seeking the Army officer���s custody in another case registered with them. Pune ATS officers informed the court that a case under Sections 465 (punishment for forgery), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document), 474 (having possession of documents described in Section 467) and 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) had been filed against Purohit. They also submitted an order from a Pune court regarding his arrest.

The custody of another Malegaon blasts case accused, Sameer Kulkarni, an Abhinav Bharat functionary, who is currently in judicial custody till November 29, was also transferred to the Khadki police station in Pune, agency reports quoting special counsel for ATS Ajay Misar said.

Kulkarni���s custody has been transferred to the Pune police in connection with a case lodged against him in 2007 for assaulting a Christian religious leader. Purohit and Kulkarni are likely to be produced in a Pune court on Wednesday, Misar said.