Nine yrs on, CBI nabs Anand Marg leader

Just when everyone was losing interest in the nine-year-old Purulia arms drop case, the CBI today announced the agency has made a major brea...

Just when everyone was losing interest in the nine-year-old Purulia arms drop case, the CBI today announced the agency has made a major breakthrough with the arrest of Acharya Tatbhananda Avadhoot. Avadhoot is a senior functionary of the Anand Marg sect and a principal accused in the 1995 arms-drop case, who had a cash award of Rs one lakh tagged onto his name.

Interestingly, the CBI claimed to have arrested Acharya Avadhoot from Chanakyapuri, a short distance from the CBI unit where the suspect is detained. Avadhoot is expected to be presented before a city court in New Delhi in the morning and later in the day, then flown to Kolkata where the case is registered.

Officials say the arrest — which came after a tip-off following sustained surveillance — means the case will have to be re-opened. They do not rule out a second chargesheet being filed in the case soon.

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Avadhoot is the secretary general of Prout Universal, an adjunct of the Anad Marg, and was listed as an absconding accused when the chargesheet was filed in March 1996 against 14 accused persons, including seven foreign nationals.

The chargesheet does detail what the CBI now describes as ‘‘evidence’’ on Acharya Avadhoot’s role and has extracts from documents in which he boasts about ‘‘waging a war against immoral forces’’. The documents recovered by the CBI also detail the arms- training to members of the sect the same year as the arms-drop at Purulia. The CBI’s case is that Avadhoot is one of the main conspirators in the case and a close associate of Kim Davy, another principal accused in the case whom the agency is still trying to extradite from Denmark. The other accused in the case, Peter Bleach, was only recently released from prison in Kolkata after he received a Presidential pardon.

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