Samjhauta train blast suspect's arrest not linked to UP polls: Digvijay Singh

Lucknow, Feb 15 (ANI): Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh on Wednesday rubbished any poll-related angle to the arrest of Kamal Chauhan in connection with the 2007 Samjhauta train blast case, and said that the suspect had himself acknowledged the fact that he was associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS).

"Kamal Chauhan himself has accepted the fact, his father has accepted the fact that he is from the RSS. He has also given a confession that he is one of the persons who planted the bomb in Samjhauta express," Singh told the media here.

"So, this is something which has been under investigation for quite sometime. There is no question of timing it with the Uttar Pradesh elections," he added.

Singh said that the RSS and the BJP were communalising the issue and that if the suspects were Muslims, then their stance would have been very different.

"Well, I think the RSS forgets that the first arrest of their activists in terror activities happened in 2002, when they threw a bomb at a temple in Mau. So, since then they have been tracked, established and I think the investigation is going on. If it was a Muslim then the Sangh attitude and the BJP attitude would have been different," he said.

RSS leader Indresh Kumar had earlier in the day said the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has been instructed by the Central Government to conspire against his party after the name of a former party worker, Kamal Chauhan, emerged as the latest suspect in 2007 Samjhauta train blast case.

Kamal Chauhan, a disgruntled RSS worker arrested by the NIA, on Tuesday claimed that he had planted bombs on Samjhauta Express in 2007 that left 68 people, mostly Pakistanis, dead.

"Yes, I have done it on my will," Chauhan told the media as he was being taken out after in-camera proceedings in the Panchkula court, which granted the NIA his custody till February 24 for questioning him on his role in the blast.ANI)