On Tuesday when the Rajasthan Home Minister told journalists that the State's Anti-Terrorism Squad might be getting ready to interrogate senior Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader Indresh Kumar for his alleged role in the Ajmer blast case, top RSS leader Suresh Joshi came out strongly in his defence hinting that the probe was less than fair.
Two days ago when a charge sheet was filed and Mr. Kumar, member of the RSS central executive committee, was mentioned as having attended a meeting where the conspiracy was hatched, the Sangh's top brass did not say a word, although spokesman Ram Madhav did speak out, and described the entire investigation as politically motivated.
But on Tuesday, after reports from Jaipur indicated that the ATS may have some “concrete evidence” against Mr. Kumar and may be preparing to interrogate him, Mr. Joshi released a two-page statement charging the authorities with “motivated designs against the RSS” and saying the direction of the investigation “belied our expectations of an impartial investigation.”
Mr. Joshi said that in the last several months the Sangh had extended full cooperation to the investigating agencies in the hope that they would do their job fairly. But since then the investigation had become “political and vindictive” and was showing signs that it was a “sinister design to defame the RSS.”
Mr. Joshi protested Mr. Kumar's innocence and said his name had been dragged into the controversy although no formal charge sheet had been filed against him. It was also asserted that Mr. Kumar had no knowledge of the meeting where a terrorist conspiracy was allegedly hatched.
The organisation has washed its hands of the lower-level pracharaks, Devendra Gupta and Lokesh Sharma — the investigating agencies seem to have collected evidence of their involvement — but with the agencies threatening to zero in on Mr. Kumar, who is among the dozen top leaders, the RSS has decided to make this a political battle with the cry that nationalists are being targeted.
