Dead RSS activist named as accused in Mecca Masjid blast case

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Last updated on: June 22, 2010 14:55 IST

The Central Bureau of Investigation has added the name of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh activist Sunil Joshi to the list of accused in the Mecca Masjid blast case.

Joshi, who hails from Madhya Pradesh, was shot dead by three unknown assailants on December 29, 2007, months after the blasts in Hyderabad and Ajmer.

The CBI moved a petition in the 14th additional chief metropolitan magistrate's court in Hyderabad on Tuesday, seeking the addition of Joshi's name.

His name is the latest addition to a list which includes RSS members Ramchandra Kalsangra alis Ramji, Sandeep Dange, Devender Gupta and Lokesh Sharma. Significantly, the CBI petition has referred to all five of them as RSS members.

According to sources, Sunil Joshi has emerged as the main brain behind the conspiracy to target Muslim religious sites across the country. He was allegedly one of the three suspects who entered the Mecca Masjid posing as tourists and planted the bomb.

Joshi is reportedly a close friend of Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, the main accused in the Malegaon blast case.

CBI investigations have revealed that Joshi, Dange and Kalsangra had travelled to Hyderabad from Indore by train and stayed at a lodge in Secunderabad, where they assembled the bombs. The accused then travelled from Secunderabad to the mosque in an auto rickshaw.