‘After blast, Pandey was in touch with Sadhvi’

Lucknow, November 18 Dayanand Pandey alias Sudhakar Dwivedi alias Mahant Amritanand has told the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) that he exchanged letters with Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and Lt Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit after the September 29 Malegaon blasts. The letters, sent by conventional post to get around possible surveillance of their email and phone lines, were written in code, Pandey has said.

An ATS team will soon reach Kanpur to look for evidence of this correspondence, sources in the Uttar Pradesh ATS told The Indian Express. A joint team of the two states’ squads will search the homes of Pandey’s brother Pushkar Dwivedi in Kanpur’s Rawatpur neighbourhood, and of a disciple in Paniyara town of UP’s Maharajganj district bordering Nepal.

Pandey was arrested from Pushkar Dwivedi’s home on November 12. The UP ATS has been watching both addresses since their Maharashtra counterparts told them about Pandey’s revelations and the possibility of finding documents related to the Malegaon blasts at these places.

The UP Police team investigating the August 24 Kanpur blast has gone through the details of Pandey’s interrogation, and found that several names mentioned by him match with those of suspects in the Kanpur blast. Whatever documents are found during searches at the Rawatpur and Paniyara addresses will be shared with them, UP ATS sources said.