The Central Bureau of Investigation asked the district court at Nanded in Maharashtra to reject an application by Yashwant Shinde -a former Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) worker- to appear as a witness in a case relating to the April 2006 Nanded blast.
In his sworn affidavit to the Nanded court, Shinde who has been a full-time worker of the Hindu militant group since 1990, had claimed that India’s ruling Hindu supremacist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had collaborated with the RSS to carry out terror attacks across India for political and electoral gain in the 2000s.
A member of the paramilitary Hindu supremacist group for 25 years, Shinde said that in 2003, a year before India’s federal elections 2004, Milind Parande, who is currently the secretary general of the VHP had emerged as the key figure to lead the plan for the bombings.
“There were only two people. They were the members of RSS and were close associates of Milind Parande who was the leader of VHP, Maharashtra Prant. These two persons informed the applicant that a training camp in bomb-making was going to be organized 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 bomb-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,” read the affidavit....
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