BLAST REVIVES MEMORIES OF KANPUR AND NANDED.

THE DIWALI- eve blast in Goa was the third accidental explosion in recent years in which alleged Hindutva terrorists manufacturing or carrying the bomb have ended up as victims.

In 2006, a similar blast took place in Nanded, while Kanpur witnessed the other blast. A year has passed since then, but the Uttar Pradesh Police are yet to make any headway in the case.

Two Bajrang Dal members had died when a bomb they were manufacturing had exploded accidentally. Chief minister Mayawati had said the blast was a part of a larger conspiracy by the group to destabilise communal harmony and had handed over the case to the anti- terrorism squad ( ATS) for " quick investigation". According to Kanpur deputy inspector general of police Neera Rawat, " the matter is still under investigation". But the police seem to have hit a dead end.

Superintendent of police D. K. Chaudhary said: " Much water has flown in the Ganga since the incident took place. People have forgotten about it. Otherwise too, such cases with interstate links take more time to investigate." When the Hindus were getting ready to celebrate Janamashtmi on August 24 last year, Bhupendra Singh Chopra, 31, and Rajeev Mishra, 25, had died in a house in Kanpur's Shastri Nagar area when a bomb they were assembling exploded.

The two were listed as Bajrang Dal ( the RSS's youth wing) members and were regular visitors at the RSS " shakhas". The police had recovered three kg of red oxide, one kg of ' sutli', 500 gm of gunpowder, three mobile handsets, 11 empty local grenades, seven electronic watches, a bundle of wire, seven battery cells, seven connectors and 70 iron make bombs from the house.

The police had also said the two Bajrang Dal members wanted to cause blasts in Kanpur and Firozabad on Janamashtmi to malign the Muslims. Next day, five kg of explosives and other material were recovered by the police from a nallah near Chopra's house.

Chopra had earlier been booked for involvement in a riot in the city after the demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992. Over a dozen people had reportedly died in the riot.

ADG Brijlal had said the blast was a part of a larger conspiracy in which political links were clearly visible. The police said the two had made several calls to Maharashtra and J& K. According to the police, they had evidence to link the blast with a Hindu extremist organisation in Maharashtra and said the same kinds of organisations were involved in the Malegaon blasts of September 2006.

A Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader and a professor of the Kanpur Indian Institute of Technology -- mentors of Chopra and Mishra -- were also investigated in the case and brain electrical oscillation signature profiling and narco- analysis tests were conducted on two other Bajrang Dal members, Sushil Dixit, 30, and Subodh Dixit, 27.

Last November, the UP ATS arrested Dayanand Pandey alias Amritanand Dev Teerth, 40, a self- proclaimed Shankaracharya of Jammu and Kashmir, for his involvement in the Malegaon blasts. His name was first mentioned by Malegaon blasts accused Lt.

Col Shrikant Purohit.

Copyright 2009 India Today Group. All Rights Reserved.

Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company