[21] Adding to this suspicion, the name of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) came up during investigations after a bike was found near the blasts' site in Malegaon, though there was no mention of the organization's involvement in the issue.
Sunil Bansal, regional organising secretary of the ABVP, said: "First ATS mentioned the possibility of Vidyarthi Parishad and VHP being involved in the blasts and then the matter was also raised in Rajya Sabha by a Congress MP.
"[23] Following the arrest of three Hindus, a Hindu group, Sri Ram Sena (SRS), offered legal assistance to the accused [citation needed].
[25] [26] [27] Two days later, the total arrest count mounted to seven when the ATS took in Sameer Kulkarni from Bhopal and Sangram Singh from Indore for questioning.
[29] The Additional Commissioner (ATS), Sukhwinder Singh said retired Major Ramesh Upadhyay were part of an alleged "larger conspiracy", without elaborating.
His editorial also condemned an attack by NCP party workers on a Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) office in Nashik following the arrest of the sadhvi.
[33] The firebrand leader of the Bhartiya Janshakti Party, Uma Bharti, had expressed shock that the BJP and the broader sangh parivar grouping were "disowning" the sadhvi, who is alleged to be linked with the Hindu Jagaran Manch.
[34] As the politicised wrangling developed, the Hindu Mahasabha decided to provide legal aid to the suspects from Pune – Upadhyay and Kulkarni – while the umbrella organisation, Abhinav Bharat, of which the two are members.
[35] The broader organisation of Hindutva groups were seen to come together when the BJP supported the Shiv Sena's move of extending legal aid to the suspects.
Party spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said: "We have no objection to Shiv Sena's announcement of extending legal aid to Malegaon blast suspects.
The ATS then filed an application in a Mumbai court seeking permission to interrogate the hitherto unnamed person, as well as to obtain the co-operation of the UP government in doing so.
As yet there was mere speculation that the leader may be Adityanath, or his close associate and BJP MLA from the same town, Radha Mohan Das Agrawal.
[38] A Shiv Sena activist then filed a PIL in the Bombay High Court, to see the investigation handed over to the Maharashtra CID, and to see action taken against Anti-Terrorism Squad for "ill-treating" sadhvi Thakur and botching the handling of the case.
Officials of the Special Operation Group (SOG) of the Vadodara police, also a part of the investigation, said the visiting team had specific information about possible links between the Malegaon blast and city.
In response, the Army's deputy chief, Lt. Gen SPS Dhillon, said that no one will be spared if found guilty, and that action will be taken according to the charge sheet given to them by the ATS.
Facing the possibility of reports of at least three more Army men under scrutiny, the Maharashtra government denied such allegation in going under a damage control exercise.
"[citation needed] To add to the confusion reports also said Purohit had been put under a "Discipline Vigilance" ban where he would not be sacked unless a court of law finds him guilty.
[46] Purohit's remand in police custody by a magisterial court was in connection with alleged forgery in procuring a gun from the military, not with the as yet investigate terror case.
His defence opposed the prosecutions' plea for a seven-day remand for further investigations, instead saying the ATS was trying to implicate him in a false case by threatening Milind Date (the alleged supplier of the gun).
His counsel further alleged that Purohit, with a distinguished service record in the army, was being victimised for political reasons and that he could even be eliminated by the ATS because of the possession of intelligence data of a sensitive nature pertaining to SIMI and ISI operations, which could embarrass some quarters.
[47] Another major and controversial breakthrough came on 14 November when the ATS arrested the Varanasi-native Dayanand Pandey, alias Sudhakar Dwivedi, who heads the Sharda Sarvagya Peeth.
[citation needed] In January 2009, Indian police were questioning Hindu Rashtra Sene chief Pramod Muthalik over his possible role in the attacks.
[50] The NIA, National Investigative Agency, has found no evidence against Pragya Singh Thakur in the Sunil Joshi Murder case and it is recommending the court to drop all charges against her.
[52][53] On 29 December 2021, a witness in the Malegaon 2008 blast case claimed that he was illegally detained for seven days by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in 2008 and was pressured to name five RSS members including current Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
[59] Union Textiles Minister, Shankersinh Vaghela, came out with an allegedly scathing attack on the Gujarat government by saying it was not willing to nab the "real" culprits behind the blast even though the Congress MP from Sabarkantha, Madhusudan Mistry, had pointed a finger at probable suspects.
He made the claim that the Gujarat Police had proved itself "useless" while it was heavily politicised in acting only on the orders issued by the Chief Minister's Office.
[12] Mysorewala, pointed out that of the 500 people summoned for their statements 200 were associated with Hindutva organisations like the RSS, ABVP, VHP and Bajrang Dal in Modasa.