Three persons still wanted in Malegaon blast case: DGP

MUMBAI: At least three more persons are still wanted in the Malegaon blast case, Maharashtra Director General of Police A N Roy said here on Sunday.

"At least three persons are still wanted in the September 29 Malegaon blast case in which ten persons have been arrested so far," Roy said, adding that investigations were not nearing an end in the case yet.

When asked whether the ATS was investigating the possible role of those arrested in the Malegaon case in other blasts apart from the 2004 Jalna and 2007 Samjhauta Express, the DGP declined to comment.

Eight of the arrested persons in the case are to be produced in a Nashik magistrate's court on Monday as their judicial custody is ending.

The eight, to be produced, include Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, former army official Ramesh Upadhyay and Abhinav Bharat member Sameer Kulkarni.

The ATS told a Nashik court yesterday that arrested army official Lt Col Prasad obtained RDX from Jammu and Kashmir which was allegedly used in the Malegaon blast.

ATS officials had said they were investigating the source of the RDX and if it had been used in the Malegaon blast and other blasts like the 2007 Samjhauta train blast and the 2004 Jalna blast.

A witness in the Malegaon case has told the ATS that Purohit had allegedly shown him a consignment of the explosive in Devlali in 2006 and had told him that he had obtained it from Jammu and Kashmir.

One of the arrested in the Malegaon case, gun expert Rakesh Dhawde, has been taken into custody by the Aurangabad ATS to probe his alleged involvement in a training camp prior to the 2004 Jalna blast.