Revisiting Nanded

The plaque outside the single-storey building in Patvhandhare, a predominantly Hindu locality in Nanded, reads 8216;Sree Lakshmi Narsimha8217;.

The plaque outside the single-storey building in Patvhandhare, a predominantly Hindu locality in Nanded, reads 8216;Sree Lakshmi Narsimha8217;. Like in several other homes in the locality, a saffron flag flutters on the rooftop. It is here, home to retired PWD executive engineer Laxman Rajkondwar and family for the last 25 years, that a pipe-bomb went off on April 6, 2006, killing Rajkondwar8217;s son Naresh and his accomplice Himanshu Panse. Four persons, Maruti Wagh, Yogesh Deshpande-Vidulkar, Gururaj Tuptewar and Rahul Pande, were injured in the explosion.

As he sits in the marble-floored living room, where Sangh literature and documents are prominently displayed, Rajkondwar speaks proudly of his Sangh connection and his son. 8220;It has been two years since the incident. Though I am the head of the family, my son handled everything. He was like my PA. He was active and more intelligent than me. He was an adarsh son. He worked as a road contractor, was married and had an eight-month-old son when he died,8221; he says.

8220;I work for the RSS. My children were brought up in the Sangh culture. I was targeted by the police because of my Sangh links. The CBI investigation did not find any connection,8221; he adds.

The ATS, which initially handled the case, arrested Rajkondwar and 25 others and said the bomb assembled in his house was to be planted at a mosque in Aurangabad. But after the CBI took over the case in 2007, criminal conspiracy charges were lifted against 11 of the accused, including Rajkondwar.

Nanded8217;s communal lines are clearly demarcated with pockets of Hindu, Muslim and Sikh localities. Small temples dot the town8217;s narrow bylanes, where people wake up to prabhat pheris and Sangh sabhas. The town has at least two prominent RSS shakhas and a number of smaller ones that are run from homes. The city 8212; with its peculiar dialect of Hyderabadi Hindi and Marathi 8212; has had a fragile social fabric over the last 10 years. In 2000, four persons were stabbed to death when a row over a Ganesh procession turned violent.

Here, affiliations run strong 8212; in the form of huge saffron flags on rooftops and wall paintings of Bharat Mata and Savarkar. Lanes in Hindu localities are marked with Bajrang Dal slogans and homes have religious stickers and wall tiles.

A few kilometres from Rajkondwar8217;s house is the house of Yogesh Deshpande-Vidulkar, who was injured in the explosion. The double-storey bungalow in Wamannagar, another Hindu locality, also houses a RSS hostel for girls. Yogesh refused to speak or be photographed. 8220;I do not wish to say anything. Everything is before the court. It will decide. We will see what happens,8221; he said.

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Our next stop is the house of Himanshu Panse, who, along with Rajkondwar8217;s son Naresh, was killed in the explosion. Himanshu8217;s family was out at the time of our visit but their neighbours soon gathered to defend him. They spoke of Himanshu8217;s strong Bajrang Dal and Sangh associations but claimed that he would not have killed people. As they spoke, emotions ran high. They said the current ATS investigations were part of a political plot but admitted that Himanshu and his friends were strident Hindutva activists who went about town campaigning against 8220;cow slaughter and Muslim terrorists8221;.

Another accused, Rahul Pande, says, 8220;I have never attended any RSS sabha or shakha. I have not done it before and I am not doing it now. I don8217;t know what happened there. I lost consciousness. I was in hospital for two months.8221;

Before the 2006 blasts placed Nanded on India8217;s terror map, the town was always known as a cultural hotspot. Situated on the north bank of Godavari river, it is famous for the Shri Huzur Abchalnagar Sachkhand Gurudwara, where Sikh guru Guru Govind Singh breathed his last.