Malegaon blast accused Sameer Kulkarni provided “paid” police security

Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Sudhir Hiremath of Pimpri-Chinchwad police told The Indian Express, “Kulkarni had filed an application seeking security. A due inquiry was conducted in this regard. Based on threat perception, we have decided to give him police security for a period of one month on paid basis. So he will have to pay for the police security.”

Hiremath denied that the decision to provide Kulkarni an armed constable was taken as a consequence of Kamlesh Tiwari’s murder.

Tiwari, a former working president of the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha who founded the Hindu Samaj Party, was killed at his home in Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh on October 18.

A bomb blast in Malegaon in Nashik on September 29, 2008 had left at least 10 people dead and several others injured. A Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad led by IPS officer Hemant Karkare had arrested a serving Indian Army officer, Lt Col Prasad Purohit, along with Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, who is now a BJP MP from Madhya Pradesh, Kulkarni and others under sections of the Indian Penal Code and Unlawful Activities Prevention Act for allegedly conspiring in the bomb blast.

On September 30 this year, Kulkarni had said in a press conference that the trial before the special NIA court in Mumbai had slowed down due to the involvement of his more “high rofile” co-accused. Kulkarni had sought a speedy trial and demanded action against accused who were not following the conditions laid down when bail was granted to them.

In a press conference in April, Kulkarni had criticised Sadhvi Pragya Thakur’s statement about slain Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare, who was killed in the 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai. Thakur, who was then contesting the Lok Sabha elections from Bhopal, had said that Karkare had lost his life because she had “cursed” him. Kulkarni had called Sadhvi Pragya’s statement a “mistake”