Aseemanand allegedly said Joshi and his men involved in Modasa Investigations into the 2007 Samjhauta Express blast is helping National Investigation Agency (NIA) to find leads into the 2008 Modasa blast that killed one person and left several injured. The NIA,which is probing into both the cases,is of the opinion that the two are related as the presence of one of the main accused,Sandeep Dange,has been established at the blast site in Modasa. This has been corroborated by the confession of Swami Aseemanand before the Panchkula court where he is believed to have claimed that Sunil Joshi and his men were responsible for Modasa blasts. Immediately after the blasts,the cops had detained SIMI activists,but they were released and the probe was transferred to the NIA in June last year. Initially,there were no leads to connect the accused of Malegaon with those of Modasa,but after the arrest of Aseemanand,the investigators found common links between Ajmer Dargah,Mecca Masjid,Malegaon,Samjhauta Express and Modasa blasts. Another reason for the agency to believe that Modasa was the work of same outfit is the similarity of the explosives used. The cops said that Dange and Joshi are believed to have been helped by Shyam Sahu,Dilip Nagar,Dharmendra Bairagi,Shivnarayan Singh. They belong to the Hindu Jagaran Manch,a front for an outfit named the Hindu Janjagruti Samity. Investigators say the members of Hindu Jagaran Manch have been operating out of Indore and Dewas in Madhya Pradesh,targeting mosques. When Aseemanand was shown pictures of Hindu leaders,he identified three Sunil Dange,Ramji Kalsangre and Amit. He claimed that Lokesh Sharma,arrested by the Rajasthan ATS,was also involved in the blasts, said a senior NIA official. Aseemanand is in the custody of Rajasthan ATS. NIA sources said that Dange and Kalsangre have fled from their location in MP. The CBI,which is reinvestigating Malegaon blasts,has discussed the developments in Samjhauta probe during the monthly meeting called by the Ministry of Home Affairs with the NIA,Mumbai and Rajasthan ATS. Officials said that during the meeting,the Mumbai ATS,which has probed the role of Dange and Kalsangre,was asked to provide leads about them. Their names were revealed during the questioning of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and Lt Col Srikant Purohit, said an official who was part of the meeting.
