Rajasthan ATS nabs second suspect in Ajmer blast case

THE RAJASTHAN Anti Terrorism Squad ( ATS) on Friday arrested a suspect in the 2007 Ajmer Sharif bomb blast case.

The arrest of Chandrashekhar Barod, who was picked up from Shajapur in Madhya Pradesh, comes within 48 hours of another suspect, Devendra Gupta, being rounded up for his alleged role in the blast.

Barod is believed to have close links with rightwing Hindu organisation Abhinav Bharat, accused in the 2006 Malegaon blasts case. He is also known to be an active member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ( RSS).

" He was picked up by the Rajasthan Police," Praveen Kumar Mathur, superintendent of police, Shajapur, said.

On Saturday, Barod was produced before the chief judicial magistrate of Ajmer, who remanded him to 12 days' custody. He was later brought to Jaipur for further interrogation.

A day earlier, the same court had remanded Gupta to judicial custody.

He is also said to have close links with Abhinav Bharat and the RSS. Gupta's cousin Aman, who was also detained and brought to Jaipur, was set free after it was found that he was not involved in the case, additional director general ( ATS) Kapil Garg said.

Barod, from Chapri village in Shajapur district, belongs to a rich landlord family. He was arrested from Phalsaiyee village, where he had gone to pick his daughter from school, an official said.

A SIM card recovered from the blast site helped the police trace him, a source said.

Rajasthan ATS sources said Barod was a key member of the Madhya Pradesh- based terror module, which was behind the 2007 blast that had claimed three lives and left 30 people injured.

Sources said Barod is believed to have executed the terror attack.

Barod led the module and was entrusted with the task of supplying the mobile phone and the SIM cards used to trigger the blast, the sources added.

Gupta was also part of the special unit formed to carry out the attack.

ATS officials said the available leads suggested that the blasts in Ajmer, Malegaon and Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad in 2007 were part of an overall conspiracy. The names of Barod and Gupta had surfaced during the interrogation and narco- analysis of Lt. Col. N. Purohit and Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur. The sources also claimed that Barod had links with Thakur.

Purohit and Thakur were arrested in 2008 for their alleged involvement in the 2006 Malegaon blasts.

Garg said the ATS would visit the other parts of the country to probe the leads in the case.

With inputs from Anup Dutta in Bhopal