‘My son has been framed’

“This man (Nitish) has an uncanny similarity with my son Nabakumar. Every time I see him on screen,it reminds me that my son is now in CBI custody for no fault of his. He must be in distress,” said the woman,tears in her eyes.

Nabakumar aka Jiten Chatterjee aka Omkarnath is none other than whom the CBI describes as Swami Aseemanand — an accused in the Mecca Masjid blast case in 2007 and who was picked up on November 19 from an ashram in Haridwar. Aseemanand has his roots in Kamarpukur near Arambagh in Hooghly district,the birth place of Ramakrishna Deb. “He can never be a terrorist. He’s been a saint all through his life and will never do anything that will go against his country,” said Pramila Sarkar. But what she did not deny was his commitment to Hinduism since his childhood.

“He’s been different from others. He could not tolerate Hindus being converted into Christianity and was committed to stop it,” she said. Pramila Sarkar saw her son eight years ago when he dropped in for a brief visit. “That was the last time I saw him,otherwise,he would call once in a while,” she said. Queries by The Indian Express revealed that Aseemanand was in Kolkata during the launch of a pro-Hindu organisation called Hindu Samhati by one Tapan Ghosh in February 2008. Aseemanand was one of the main speakers in the programme held on February 14,2008 at the Bharat Sabha hall in central Kolkata. Tapan Ghosh was the session’s convener. Tapan Ghosh admitted that Aseemanand had come in 2008 during the launch of the organisation but denied any contact after that.“I tried to get in touch Aseemanand when he was in the Dangs in Gujarat on several occasions but could not,” said Ghosh.

Bibhutibhushan Sarkar,Aseemananda’s father,was a noted freedom fighter and spent long stints in jails during the British Raj. Aseemanand himself did MSc in Physics and started his career as a teacher in a village school in Burdwan district in Bengal. He adopted ‘sainthood’ while he was a teacher and left home in 1990.