Kin of Malegaon absconding accused wants govt to probe his disappearance

Family members of Ramachandra Kalsangra, an absconding accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, on Tuesday addressed a press conference in Mumbai and pleaded the government to initiate an inquiry into his disappearance. The family claims they want the government to take cognisance of the allegations by a suspended Maharashtra ATS inspector that the agency had killed Kalsangra and another absconding accused Sandeep Dange in 2008 but had had falsely maintained that they were alive.

Kalsangra's family and lawyer said that if the government finds officers from the investigating agencies guilty of the charges of custodial death, then the guilty should be punished with death.

In an application filed in August 2016 before a magistrate's court in Solapur, Mujawar had claimed that Dange and Kalsangra are "no more". Later, Mujawar was suspended after a case under the Arms Act and Criminal Intimidation was filed against him in the Solapur court.

In his application before the court, Mujawar said that Dange and Kalsangra are dead but are being shown alive by senior police officials.

Kalsangra's wife Laxmibai on Tuesday said that she came from a very humble family and was not well versed with the legal steps to be taken in the case. "The ATS officers threatened my husband and falsely implicated him in the case. They fabricated evidence against him. They terrorised us. They violated our basic right to know the whereabouts of my husband. We have got limited opportunities to fight against these atrocities, but no one is giving us a patient ear," said Laxmibai.

While speaking about the suspended cop's revelation on her husband's status, she said that she was already in pain as her husband was not traceable for the last eight years, but that the recent news was very shocking. "We were held at ransom as a part of a large political conspiracy. We were being used for the dirty vote bank politics," she claimed.

She added that the investigation in the Malegaon bomb blast case is likely to backfire on the investigating agency. "It has been proved that the agencies investigated the matter as per the convenience of then government. The ATS officers will be exposed soon in the case. They have found themselves in a quandary. Their infighting has come to the forefront. This is a very serious matter. They have misguided us."

Meanwhile Kalsangra's brother Shivnarayan alleged that even he was illegally detained by the ATS and tortured.

The Malegaon 2008 blasts changed the course of many probes including the one into the Samjhauta train blast case in which 68 people had been killed. It was for the first time that the role of a Hindu right wing group had come to light in a terror attack. The case was investigated initially by Joint Commissioner of Mumbai's ATS Hemant Karkare who was killed during the 26/11 Mumbai attack.

Before the NIA took over the case in 2011, Maharashtra ATS had booked 16 people but filed charge sheets on January 20, 2009 and April 21, 2011 against 14 accused in a Mumbai court. Lt Col Prasad Purohit and sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur had moved several applications before Bombay High Court and Supreme Court challenging the charge sheet and applicability of stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) in the case.

The accused have denied any involvement in the twin blasts that rocked Malegaon on September 29, 2008, leaving seven dead and several wounded. They have also refuted being co-conspirators in any organised crime syndicate.