Pandey laptop could provide evidence in Malegaon blast
MUMBAI: A laptop seized from self-styled religious leader Dayanand Pandey could provide investigators valuable evidence regarding the alleged
conspiracy to carry out the September 29 Malegaon blast, sources here claimed. ( Watch )
Pandey was allegedly in the habit of using his laptop, seized when he was arrested in Kanpur on November 14, to film and record meetings with people including fellow conspirators whom he met prior to the Malegaon blast.
The religious leader used the laptop to record conversations and also video recorded many of the meetings he held with other conspirators, the sources alleged.
The recordings are expected to provide valuable evidence to the ATS regarding the role of other accused and Pandey in carrying out the blast.
Pandey is among the eleven persons arrested for their alleged involvement in the Malegaon blast in which six persons were killed and over 80 wounded.
The laptop also contained a lot of right wing literature and documents which could be used to prove the accused had plans to commit more terror acts in the country, sources said.
Visitors to the self-styled religious leader were also filmed or photographed by Pandey when they visited him, the sources said, adding that the final report from the Forensic Science Laboratory was still awaited.
The ATS had earlier alleged that Pandey was among the main conspirators to carry out the blast and was the link between arrested Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, army official Prasad Purohit and wanted accused in the Malegaon case, Ramji Kalsangra.
All eleven accused have been booked under sections of the stringent MCOCA for allegedly forming an organised crime syndicate which carried out the Malegaon blast.
Nine of the other accused in the case are presently in judicial custody till December 3 after the MCOCA court on Monday had rejected the plea by the ATS to obtain police custody of the Sadhvi, Purohit and member of the right wing group Abhinav Bharat, Ajay Rahirkar.
The ATS had said they wanted to question the trio further in connection with other arrests made in the case like Abhinav Bharat member Sudhakar Chaturvedi.
Chaturvedi was caught in the city and a fake army identity card and a country made revolver, which were allegedly provided by Purohit, were recovered from him.
The Abhinav Bharat member, in police custody till December 3, also organised meetings between the eleven accused in the case and knew all of them, ATS officials had said.