Media reports on Aseemanand are lies: Singhal

PANAJI - Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) international president Ashok Singhal Sunday rubbished reports of Swami Aseemanand naming senior Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh leaders as being involved in terror activities, including the Samjhauta Express blast.

Aseemanand’s lawyer has clarified that he has given no so-called confessional statement. These shameless media reports are absolutely baseless. They are lies by the media, Singhal said.

Media reports Saturday said that Swami Aseemanand’s statement to a magistrate had named senior RSS leader Indresh Kumar for involvement in blasts in Ajmer, Hyderabad, Malegaon and on the Samjhauta Express.

Reports also said that Aseemanand had confessed before a magistrate Dec 18 under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code - which made it legally admissible as evidence with the Central Bureau of Investigation and the National Investigating Agency.

Singhal also warned of a nationwide agitation if the disgraced Congress government even tried to touch leaders of the VHP and the RSS and link them to terrorism.

The Congress has lost all prestige today. If they even touch RSS and VHP leaders, then a massive movement will start throughout the country against them, Singhal said.

Singhal also said that the Congress was using the concocted issue of ‘Hindu terror’ to deflect attention from the multi-crore scandals which were tumbling out from its cupboard and that Aseemanand’s arrest was a plot by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government to malign Hindu saints and religious leaders.