Chandrashekhar Patidar, arrested by the Rajasthan ATS in Madhya Pradesh in connection with the October 2007 Ajmer dargah bombing, is an active RSS worker, says his brother, reports Indian Express.
“Why should we be ashamed of our association with an organisation that works in the national interest,” Chandrashekhar's elder brother Satish told Indian Express. Satish confirmed that both Chandrashekhar, 38, and he have been associated for long with the RSS.
Chandrashekhar, who has a polytechnic diploma, has helped to manage an RSS-run Saraswati Shishu Mandir school in Khopra Kalan village in the past. (In Delhi, RSS leader Ram Madhav said the Sangh was “innocent”. PTI quoted him as saying, “Efforts are being made to drag the name of Sangh in the (Ajmer) blast case... innocent people and organisations like Sangh are being maligned.”)
The Rajasthan ATS first questioned Chandrashekhar around Diwali last year after a mobile phone handset allegedly used by an accused in the Ajmer blast case was traced to him. A second handset was traced to Vishnu Patidar of the nearby Khardon Kalan village.
In October, the Rajasthan ATS served notices on Chandrashekhar, his wife Sharda, Vishnu, and at least three others, asking them to be prepared for a polygraph test, to be conducted in Ajmer, Jaipur or New Delhi. The suspects were questioned intermittently until January this year.
Chandrashekhar was taken into custody on Friday when he had gone to the local Navodaya Vidyalaya in his Scorpio to fetch his daughter. The Rajasthan team that swooped on him did not involve the Madhya Pradesh police in their operation, though they did inform the Kalapipal police station while taking him away.
Vishnu was arrested by a separate team this evening. Unlike in Chandrashekhar's case, no force was used, sources said. Chandrashekhar's lawyers Bhuvan Deshmukh and Deepak Raval said the ATS action was illegal because the Madhya Pradesh High Court had ruled that he should be questioned only in the vicinity of his village. Chandrashekhar had challenged the notice that required him to be present outside Madhya Pradesh for the polygraph test.
Deshmukh said he had moved the High Court again because by taking Chandrashekhar away, the Rajasthan ATS were in contempt of court. The Indore Bench of the High Court is expected to take up the matter on Monday.
Chandrashekhar's brother Satish claimed that Chandrashekhar's brother-in-law Pankaj Patidar had brought the two mobile phone handsets from Bhopal. But Pankaj died in a road mishap last year, and the chances of tracing the handsets to their source were very slim. “We are not sure where Pankaj got the handsets from. The police are torturing us because they have no other evidence and they don't know the source of these handsets,” Satish alleged.
Chandrashekhar's wife was using one of the handsets. Vishnu had given the other to an employee who worked in his fields. Satish said his brother had even fled to Allahabad to escape questioning by the police. He claimed Vishnu had gone into a depression after sustained questioning by the Rajasthan team, and was treated for months in Indore
