Sunil Joshi murder case: Reluctant police moves, State government cautious

Sunil Joshi

The murder of RSS pracharak Sunil Joshi has once again come back to haunt Madhya Pradesh police and the Sangh Parivar as almost all the invetigation cases including Ajmer Dargah, Mecca Masjid and Samjhauta Express blast in which Saffron groups are found involved lead the police to Joshi's murder.

Joshi, 45, who was considered a leading Hindutva idealogue in Malwa region, was shot dead in Dewas on December 29, 2007. The Madhya Pradesh police had stopped investigation when they found that leaders of BJP and Sangh Parivar may get exposed in the probe.

It was an inside job. There are various theories. The first linked to Congress leader Pyar Singh Ninama, who had cut Joshi's 'choti' (tuft of hair) publicly in Mhow. Joshi had left Mhow and shifted to Dewas where he lived with four RSS workers in a house.

Later Ninama was murdered. Later Ninama's son was also killed. Following the tribal leader's killing, Joshi was shot dead and three bullets pumped in his body. There was theory that he was bragging about his role in organising the terrorist attacks and this scared others who feared that he would expose them also.

Shrikant Purohit had allegedly said that it was Joshi who had been behind the Samjhauta Express bomb strike. But police closed the case and the investigation including the last calls made on his cell phone, his roommates and other evidences was buried.

Hindi Newspaper Dainik Bhaskar's report

Joshi's uncle Madan Mohan Modi and family members has openly said that it was his companions who had killed him. He said that the police were aware of the case but were not pursuing the matter for reasons known to them only.

But in 2010, when NIA and ATS teams of Rajasthan and other states again focused on Hindutva groups like Abhinav Bharat and Jai Vande Mataram after the arrest of Aseemanand, to solve the Mecca Masjid and Ajmer Dargah blast cases, MP police were forced to reopen the investigation.

Newspaper reports suggest that it was during the Kumbh Mela at Ujjain that Swami Aseemanand had planned to bring the militant Hindutva groups together to avenge Islamic terrorism by targeting Muslim places of worship.

It is also believed that Joshi's closeness with Pragya Thakur, who is in jail for Malegoan blast, led to the killing. She had given her bike to Joshi and it was used in planting bomb in Muslim-dominated Malegaon. Now role of a BJP leader and other Sangh workers has also been found. The MP police are in a tough situation.

If it solves the case, persons linked to Sangh Parivar would be caught. If it doesn't, then central agencies and Rajasthan ATS can claim success. In this scenerio, the police have begun fresh investigations but are unsure how to move ahead.