Second suspect held for Ajmer Dargah blast

JAIPUR - A second man with links to a Hindu rightwing group has been arrested for alleged involvement in the 2007 bombing at the revered Ajmer Dargah Sharif that killed three people, police sources in Rajasthan said Saturday.

The Anti-Terrorist Squad of the Rajasthan Police arrested Chandreshekhar in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh. His arrest comes close on the heels of the arrest of Devendra Gupta from Ajmer Wednesday.

Three people were killed and about 30 injured when a bomb exploded Oct 11, 2007 on the premises of the Dargah of Sufi Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti which draws hundreds of thousands of people both from India and abroad.

Chandreshekhar was arrested Friday evening from Shujapur near Malwa in Madhya Pradesh, a police officer told IANS.

He is considered an important member of the module that was apparently formed to carry out the bomb attack at the Dargah.

Though the ATS officially refused to name the Hindu group said to be linked to the arrested men, sources in the ATS said it was Abhinav Bharat.

The sources said the ATS team has seized the mobile phone used to trigger the Dargah blast.

The first accused Gupta, who lived in Jharkhand, reached Ajmer to visit his ailing mother when he was arrested.

On Friday, the chief judicial magistrate in Ajmer remanded him in 12 days police custody, an ATS official said.

“We have started to interrogate Gupta and we have got fresh leads into the case from him. Our teams will probe the leads,” he added.

“A few more people are on our suspect list and you may see more arrests in the coming days. Our investigations are expected to lead us to other states too,” he said.

The official said police were able to trace the accused with the help of SIM cards recovered from the blast site.

Gupta had allegedly purchased the SIM cards for the mobile handset that triggered the blast.