A sadhvi and a murder plot

Present in the flat that day were Raj alias Harshad Solanki and Mehul alias Ghanashyam (both accused in the Best Bakery case),Vasudev Parmar (a Dewas-based photographer and RSS worker who had known Joshi for 15 years),and Anandraj Kataria (an Indore-based supporter of Pragya’s). They had met at Kataria’s flat for one last time before the actual act.

According to the plan,Solanki was to kill Joshi while Parmar,Mehul and Mohan alias Ramesh (another Best Bakery accused) were to monitor Joshi’s movements. Kataria was asked to procure a “good weapon” for the murder and drive from Indore to Dewas,a distance of 35 km,to bring the killers after the murder to his Indore flat.

On December 29,Joshi was shot dead in Chuna Khadan locality of Dewas,not far from his one-room hideout,where he had provided shelter to four of the accused in the Best Bakery case of Gujarat 2002. At least three of them would turn out to be his murderers.

The meeting and the fallout

But why did the sadhvi want Joshi killed? The chargesheet says Pragya had a fight with Joshi during the 2006 Shabari Kumbh held in Dangs district of Gujarat. He allegedly “misbehaved” with her. The chargesheet does not elaborate on the incident but says that it ended up souring their earlier “close” relationship.

The two first met in 2003 in Surat where Joshi had taken shelter after his name figured in the murder of a tribal Congress leader. There,Pragya introduced him to Bharat Riteshwar,a resident of Valsad,and Aseemanand,head of the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram in Gujarat’s Dangs district.

Joshi,who then went by the name Manoj,was actively involved in organising the 2006 Shabari Kumbh mela at Dangs. It was here that Joshi allegedly misbehaved with Pragya and the two had a fight.

That year,Joshi moved to Dewas in Madhya Pradesh. For a few days,he maintained a low profile,living in the office of an NGO run by Shivam Dhakad,who,incidentally,is also in jail in connection with a murder case.

By the end of 2006,four of the accused in the Best Bakery case—Harshad Solanki,Mehul alias Ghanashyam alias Mafat,Mohan alias Ramesh and Ustad alias Jayanti—came to Dewas and Joshi provided them shelter at a hideout arranged by BJP councilor Ramcharan Patel. To avoid attention,the four men started doing odd jobs. People in the area began to call Joshi,who sported a long beard,‘Guruji’ and the hideout,‘Ashram’. The sadhvi regularly visited Ashram and so did Kataria,Parmar and Patel.

But around this time,Joshi,who continued to receive money from “different sources’’,according to the chargesheet,started dabbling in business ventures. Joshi started a courier shop in Indore and trained his nephew and Mehul,the Best Bakery accused who lived with him,to run the business. He also purchased a Bolero and invested in a liquor business. But all along,Joshi took care not to make any purchases in his name and even used his brother’s ATM card to withdraw money.

The chargesheet says Joshi’s visibility and business ambitions made Pragya uncomfortable and she wanted him to leave Dewas. Pragya had heard from “her sources’’ that Joshi might surrender before the police and spill the beans on the group’s workings and that it might affect their “future activities’’. (Earlier investigations showed how Joshi led the group that carried out bombings at Malegaon,Mecca Masjid and Ajmer Sharif. Pragya is an accused in the Malegaon case.)

So,Pragya wanted Joshi killed. She allegedly told her co-conspirators that Joshi had involved them in “criminal activities’’ without their knowledge and they would be in trouble if they did not listen to her.

Besides the threat of a possible brush with the police,she persuaded Kataria that his family would gain politically if he remained loyal to her. Solanki was told that she would help him and the other Best Bakery accused settle down without inviting police action.

And then,they sat down to plan the murder.

The planning

Police have analysed the call details and the location of the handsets owned by the accused to give an elaborate description of how Pragya was in touch with them on the day of the murder and how they informed her of their minutest of plans.

To begin with,the group bought several SIM cards,all under fake identities. On December 27,2007,the day of the murder,Kataria called up Parmar,the Dewas-based photographer,at 7.46 a.m. and the two kept in touch till Parmar reached Indore. Parmar had,in turn,kept in touch with Solanki from a PCO booth near Ashram. From 6.47 p.m. to 8.43 p.m.,Parmar kept his mobile phone switched off to hide his location.

While Kataria used 9926110055,Pragya gave instructions to Kataria and others using the number 9425056114. Kataria then called up Joshi and the two had an argument over the phone,following which Joshi left his family home in Vikasnagar,Dewas,to his Ashram,a few metres away. Joshi had left on foot and the conspirators had to act soon,intercept him.

At 7.44 p.m.,Kataria immediately got in touch with Best Bakery accused Mehul. In between,Kataria spoke to Pragya four times and passed on her instructions to Mehul. Before switching off his phone at 8.15 p.m.,Kataria made a last call to Pragya. His phone remained switched off till 8.54 p.m. That was the time Joshi was shot dead. Joshi probably spoke for the last time on his phone around 8.02 pm.

The murder and the clean-up

Joshi was a few metres away from Ashram when Solanki and his friend Ramesh (who now claims he was unaware of the plot) were heading towards him from another direction on a two-wheeler (MP-09-MH 6598). They met Joshi on the way and made him sit in between—Ramesh driving and Solanki riding pillion. After covering some distance,Solanki allegedly asked Ramesh to stop the bike at a desolate stretch and shot Joshi. He pushed Joshi to the ground and fired another round.

While Ramesh ran away,Solanki went to Ashram,changed his clothes and kept the gun in a black bag. He returned to the scene of the crime to check if Joshi was actually dead. BJP councilor Ramcharan Patel also reached soon after and allegedly removed two cellphones from Joshi’s body and asked Solanki to go back to Ashram.

Solanki,with Mehul,then went to a flat in Dewas,where they met Mohan alias Ramesh,Parmar and Kataria (who had driven down from Indore in his Santro). All of them then returned in Kataria’s car to his Indore flat. On the way,they stopped at Rajoda village,where Parmar’s brother-in-law lived. Parmar got off here with two black bags,which carried weapons and explosives and one of which carried the murder weapon. Kataria brought Solanki,Mohan,Mehul—all accused in the Best Bakery case—to his Indore flat.

The chargesheet is silent on Pragya’s location a few hours before the murder but says that on the night of the murder,she reached the hospital in Dewas where Joshi’s body had been kept and soon after,visited his family home in Vikasnagar to remove a briefcase. She then returned to Indore and called Kataria to her flat,where the two stayed till January 6,2008. Solanki,Mehul and Mohan stayed the night in Kataria’s flat.

The chargesheet does not say how BJP councilor Patel,who removed two cellphones from Joshi’s body at the murder spot,was made to participate in the conspiracy. Patel returned one of the cellphones to the police on January 4,2008. The other set was seized on November 28,2010,from Badwani but the SIM that Joshi used when he was murdered was never recovered.