National

Electronic evidence clinches Dayanand Pandey’s custody

MUMBAI: The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Wednesday placed on record electronic evidence that helped clinch the police custody of Sudhakar Dwivedi alias Dayanand Pandey in the Malegaon blast case. Dwivedi has been remanded to police custody under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crimes Act (MCOCA) till December 1.

While recording his order, Y.D. Shinde, additional judge, special MCOCA court, said the material put forth was “sufficiently strong evidence” to grant police custody.

So far, Dwivedi is the second suspect to be granted police custody under MCOCA. The other is Sudhakar Chaturvedi. Nine other accused in the Malegaon blast case were granted judicial custody.

Public prosecutor Rohini Salian placed before the court a report consisting of transcripts and descriptions of three audio recordings and one video recording from Dwivedi’s laptop. This evidence points to the fact that a meeting took place between Lt.Col. Prasad Shrikant Purohit and Dwivedi.

There were many others present in the meeting. Ms. Salian did not wish to name them in the court. She also requested the court not to disclose their names as it would hamper investigations.

In one of the audios, a meeting was held in what “appears to be a mandir [temple]” as a religious ceremony seems to be going on, Ms. Salian said. She told the media later that some “shlokas and bhajans” were heard in the background.

Ms. Salian referred to a conversation between “accused number 4 [Ramesh Upadhyay] and accused number 10 [Dwivedi].” It pertains to “grenades, training, RDX and remote control” she told the court. It also mentions “short range and long range weapons,” including a .32 revolver, she said.

One of the accused is reported to have said, “Now listen what is my plan.” Referring to recordings, she told the court that the content was “atrocious.”

Ms. Salian also spoke of a conversation related to “some chemical” which allegedly points to the explosives used in the Malegaon blast. In another reference, she quoted “successful ho gaya to bahut acha hai [if it is successful it is good].”

Ms. Salian said a “mirror image” of the hard disk was obtained from Dwivedi’s laptop from where the material was culled. A mirror image is a replica of the hard disk. The probe is conducted on the replica so that the original hard disk remains untouched. Four laptops were seized by the ATS out of which two belonged to Dwivedi. The process of forensic analysis was still on. In his plea to the court, Dwivedi said he was not involved in the blast. He said he was part of the meeting and was in touch with others only in his capacity as a religious head, while the CD was “only a discussion on Hindutva.”

His other prayers to the court included permission to wear his attire. The court granted him permission to wear saffron clothes. He was not allowed to wear rudraksha as the ATS cited security concerns.

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