Self-styled seer of UP admits having known Purohit and Pragya

Lucknow, Nov 13 (UNI) The self-styled Hindu seer Sudhakar Dwivedi, who is in custody of Mumbai ATS is likely to be a vital catch in the recent Malegaon bomb blast as in preliminary interrogations he confessed to have known Lt Col S P Purohit and Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur.

His phone call details traced to have confirmed this and his involvement in Malegaon blast and proximity to serving Army Officer Purohit and Pragya, the accused in the case, would be the prime objective of the investigating agency-Mumbai Anti-Terrorist Squad.

Transcripts of his mobile phone conversations in the recent past suggested his dubious role into the whole case and the detailed interrogation in Maharashtra would throw some more light on Malegaon blasts, according to a senior police official.

He was arrested in Kanpur after a brief joint operation by Mumbai ATS and UP ATS from his brother's place in Rawatpur and produced before a local court, where he was sent on three-days transit remand. He was being taken to Mumbai by a commercial flight this evening, where a detailed interrogation would be conducted on him.

Judicial Magistrate Mukesh Kumar Singh directed the Mumbai ATS to produce him in Nashik Court by 1600 hrs on November 16. Today being holiday, the ATS produced the accused at the Judge's residence.

Sudhakar Dwivedi alias Dayanand Pandey alias Amritanand Swami son of a retired UP police Sub-Inspector, was given the status of Shankaracharya of Kashmir peeth, though in shady manner, by one Varanasi Vidwat Parishad in Varanasi on May 16, 2003, the investigation revealed. He had turned to 'spirituality' about a decade ago.

The self-styled Peethadhiswar of Sharda Sarvagya Math, Jammu, Sudhakar baffled the interrogators during the preliminary probe by his incoherent statements which he kept on changing. Also known to have served the Indian Air Force as a Junior Commissioned Officer, subject to official confirmation, the Hindu seer has links in Kashmir, Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh and Faridabad in Haryana.

According to highly placed police sources, he used to frequently visit to Varanasi Sumeru Hindu Peeth headed by Shankaracharya Narendranand Saraswati. The sources, however, refused to divulge if the Sumeru Peeth Shankaracharya was also under the scanner of ATS.

Mumbai ATS had sought his interrogation in Malegaon blast case on which the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) on Nashik had instructed UP ATS to round him up and hand over to Mumbai ATS.

The ATS sleuths are also likely to visit Jammu and Kashmir as he lived since 2003 in Trikut Nagar, Jammu and headed a Math there.

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