A silence louder than blast RSS yet to clear air on bombing claim affidavit

Congress cites affidavit of Yashwant Shinde, who claims to have attended bomb-making and arms training classes and met people who were later arrested for blasts

Representational image. : File photo

TT Special Correspondent   |   New Delhi   |   02.09.22 : The Congress has uploaded an affidavit attributed to a purported former RSS activist in which he claimed that Sangh parivar outfits arranged training in bomb-making, conducted blasts across the country and blamed it on Muslims, which “helped them in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.”

Congress media department head Pawan Khera on Thursday tweeted the affidavit that was filed on August 29, 2022, in the district and sessions court in Nanded in Maharashtra by one Yashwant Shinde who claimed to have worked in the RSS, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Bajrang Dal. He claimed to have attended bomb-making and arms training classes and met people in the course who were later arrested for blasts.

Although many social media users retweeted Khera’s post, neither the RSS nor the BJP had responded till Thursday evening.

Khera tweeted: “RSS pracharak Yashwant Shinde gave dreadful details of RSS anti-national activities in an affidavit about how the conspiracy was hatched to conduct bomb blasts across the country and who were involved. What else can be bigger breaking news?”

A video of Shinde making similar claims is also circulating on social media.

Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh commented: “Yashwant Shinde has shown exemplary courage in filing the affidavit. Those named in the affidavit by Shinde are men of criminal tendency. There can be a threat to Shinde’s life. The Mumbai police commissioner should arrange for his security.”

The affidavit says that Shinde was involved with the RSS since 1990 when he was 18. He went to Jammu in 1994 after reading that Hindus were being killed in the state, and Indresh Kumar, an RSS veteran, appointed him as the “vistarak’ (a post in the RSS) of Rajauri and Jawaharnagar. In 1995, Shinde was arrested for hitting Farooq Abdullah but got bail after some days. He was acquitted in 1998.

Shinde took primary and secondary-level training in the RSS and was appointed as “pracharak” in Udhampur district of Jammu and Kashmir. He returned to Mumbai in 1999 and was made the chief of the Bajrang Dal. He also worked for Garjana, an aggressive wing of the students’ wing, ABVP.

The affidavit claims Indresh asked him to get hold of some boys having a fighting spirit and take them to Jammu where they would be trained to use modern weapons.

The selection of the boys took place at a state-level meeting of the VHP in Thane where the applicants were introduced to one VHP leader called Himanshu Panse. Shinde took Himanshu and seven others to Jammu where they were given arms training.

The affidavit refers to a bomb-making training camp, saying: “These two persons (close associates of a VHP leader Miliand Parande) informed the applicant that a training camp in bomb-making was going to be organised shortly and thereafter, there was a plan to cause bomb blasts throughout the country. They put forth the proposal that he should take responsibility for carrying out maximum blasts in various parts in the country. He was shocked but did not show it on his face and asked them in a lighter vein whether it was a preparation for 2004 Lok Sabha elections. They did not answer.”

According to the affidavit, one Rakesh Dhawade used to bring a person who called himself “Mithun Chakravarty” for giving training in bomb-making. He later found the real name of Mithun Chakravarty was Ravi Dev.

The affidavit says Dhawade was later arrested in the Malegaon 2008 blast case. “After the training, the organisers took the trainees in a vehicle to a secluded forest area for testing the bombs by carrying out rehearsal of blasts. The trainees would dig a small pit, put the bomb with timer in it, cover it with soil & big boulders and detonate the bomb. Their tests were successful.”

Shinde refers to many people’s involvement in the purported project, including one Tapan Ghosh from Bengal and Pramod Mutalik of the Ram Sene in Karnataka. Shinde claims he sabotaged the blast plans at several places because he wasn’t supporting of violence.

After the Congress won the general election in 2004, the affidavit adds, the key persons like Milind Parande went underground. “By remaining underground, they carried out many blasts across the country and with the help of biased police and one-sided media, blamed them on Muslims. That helped them in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections,” the affidavit reads.

The affidavit added: “The applicant has a firm belief that Hindu religion is a very noble religion. Hindus, in general, are not of terrorist tendencies but some Hindu organisations like the RSS, the VHP and the Bajrang Dal are definitely engaged in terrorist activities for the political gain of the BJP.”

Maktoob Media quoted VHP national spokesperson Vinod Bansal as saying he was not aware of such an affidavit and he would not comment on it. He added that Parande dedicated his life to the nation and anyone who blamed Parande should not be trusted.