Digvijaya Singh demands NIA probe into Aseemanand tapes

New Delhi: Latching on to reports that Swami Aseemanand had claimed that RSS leadership "sanctioned" some terror acts, Congress leader Digvijay Singh today demanded that NIA must act on the issue and expressed annoyance why it had not interrogated Sangh leader Indresh Kumar so far.

"This is very incriminating evidence on which the NIA must act. NIA must take into possession the recorded tapes of the interview of Swami Aseemanand," Singh said.

Digvijaya Singh. AFP

His remarks came amid a political controversy over a purported "interview" given by Aseemanand to a magazine in which he reportedly claimed that the RSS leadership had sanctioned the "Hindu terror conspiracy" that included the blasts in Samjhauta Express, Mecca Masjid and Ajmer Sharif.

Singh, a known detractor of RSS, at the same time said that he was not saying that all Sangh activists are involved in such acts "but some of the fringe elements are involved".

"Aseemanand has been an RSS activist...The BJP has not contradicted as yet his involvement in the terror act. It's a fact that Sangh activists have been charged in Malegaon, Modasa, Ajmer Sharif and Samjhauta Express blasts.... NIA had chargesheeted such elements.

"It's not for the first time tht Aseemanand has made the statement. Even earlier he had said that all these attacks had happened in the knowledge of the Sangh leadership. But for the first time he has named the RSS chief," the Congress general secretary said.

RSS spokesman Ram Madhav has described as "concocted" Aseemanand's purported interview with the "Caravan" magazine in which he made the claim that the RSS leadership had sanctioned the "Hindu terror conspiracy" that included the blasts in Samjhauta Express, Mecca Masjid and Ajmer Sharif.

Noting that he had heard the "defence" of the RSS and BJP leaders about how the interview could be done inside a jail, Singh said, "they are questioning the process.... In a number of Supreme Court judgements, the judges have held that even an evidence collected in an illegal manner cannot be ignored in judicial process."

Singh also attacked Centre's investigating agency NIA for not interrogating Indresh Kumar.

PTI