ATS erred in linking Malegaon Blasts to 11/ 7

The Anti Terrorist Squad ( ATS) linking the 7/ 11 blast with the Malegon blast, was the wrong line of investigation pursed by the Anti Terrorist Squad in September, 2006. A senior police official claimed that the ATS then had failed to examine the evidence threadbare and hence based on unsubstantiated piece of evidence and non- credible leads linked the 7/ 11 blast with the Malegoan blast of 2006.

Series of blasts struck Malegaon on September 8 in 2006 ahead of Shab- e- Barat, a Muslim festival when thousands of people were busy in offering Friday prayers in a mosque.

The senior police official pointed out that the impact of the RD- laden explosives in 7/ 11 was huge compared to the explosives that blew up in Malegoan on September 8. There are even strong doubts then raised in intelligence circles, whether the explosive used in both the blasts contained similar material.

The RD laden explosives had ripped apart the steel compartments of the local train in 7/ 11 while the damage caused to the bicycles on which the explosives were fitted, was too small. The seats of the bicycles were intact and the concrete structures in the cemetery did not collapse due to the impact of the explosive, proving that the improvised explosives were of low intensity and did not contain a deadly cocktail of RD and tother highly explosive material.

Post mortem was done on a few bodies recovered from every site of the Malegaon 2006 blasts, where traces of explosive material was recovered and tested. It is believed that out of the 38 persons who died at the blast site, 30 were trampled to death.

However, the bicycles used in the blast were not sent for ballistic examination, to ascertain the explosive material used in the blast. Last week, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ( RSS) leader Swami Aseemanand.

who was arrested last year, in a confessional statement before a magistrate said that he along with other Hindu activists was involved in the bombings in Malegaon in 2006 and 2008, Ajmer, Hyderabad's Mecca Masjid, and the Samjhauta Express train. This gave substantial credence to intelligence agencies claims in 2006 that the 7/ 11 serial train blasts in Mumbai and the Malegaon blasts had not link.

But unfortunately the ATS then probing the case, linked the terror outfit, Indian Mujahideen, the perpetrators of the 7/ 11 blasts, with the Malegaon blasts of 2006. Another police official maintained that it a glaring fact noticed in the10,000- page chargesheet filed by Anti- Terrorist Squad in the court after which the Central Bureau of Investigation took over case, there was no mention about the mode used for triggering the explosives used in the 7/ 11 serial blasts. According to the chargesheet, the ATS has relied on the findings of the Forensic Science Laboratory in Kalina, which are varying with the findings made by the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Hyderabad and the National Security Guard.

" FSL finding certifies that RD ( Rapid Detonating Explosive or Research and Development Explosive or cyclonite), gelatine sticks and fuel oil were used in the improvised explosives, which varies with the findings of the CFSL and NSG. Also, the chemical analysis report of CFSL did not fully tally with the report prepared by CFSL, in the 7/ 11 blasts case.

" It is was not clear whether a chemical timer or a quartz watch or a mechanical alarm clock or an electronic timer or a remote device or a mobile phone instrument was used for setting off the explosive.

Therefore, linking 7/ 11 blasts with the Malegoan 2006 blasts was wrong, since material evidence recovered from the 7/ 11 blast sites was not fully corroborated scientifically, and obviously connecting the two blasts was a big mistake," said the police officer.

Also, all along the then city Police Commissioner A N Roy and other senior union government and ATS officials had categorically claimed that pressure cookers were used in the 7/ 11 blasts. At a crowded press conference televised live not only nationally but also internationally, Roy claimed that pressure cookers purchased by the accused from two kitchen hardware stores in Santacruz, were used for concealing the explosive material. However, subsequently in the chargesheet, it was mentioned that the explosive substance was packed in kitchen utensils and failed to specify the type of metallic containers.