Swami Aseemanand

Early life

Aseemanand was born Naba Kumar Sarkar in Kamarpukar located in the Hooghly district of West Bengal. (Over time he also used the aliases Jiten Chatterjee and Omkarnath.) His father was Bibhutibhushan Sarkar, a noted freedom fighter, and his mother is Pramila Sarkar. He is one of seven brothers.

His name Aseemanand was courtesy his guru, Swami Parmanand, in whose ashram in Bangramanjeshwar of Bardhaman Aseemanand stayed till 1988.

Activities in the Dangs district

In 1993, he came to the headquarters of VKA in Jaspurnagar in Chhattisgarh. After two years, Aseemanand was sent to Dangs district of Gujarat to work with tribals in the area. Local tribals told him that Shabari, from the Ramayana, had lived in their forests, which influenced Swami Aseemanand to build a Shabari temple there. He was quite popular among Dang tribals. When Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram shunted him out of Dang over some controversy, the tribals refused to cooperate and he had to be brought back to placate them. "We demolished thirty churches and built temples. There was some commotion."

Forcible conversion of Christians

Human Rights Watch reported that Aseemanand played a huge role in the 1998 attacks on Christians in southeastern Gujarat, where dozens of churches were burnt down or damaged. The Human rights watch also credited him with the "Unai hot springs conversion ritual" whereby Christian tribals in the district were taken to Asheemanand's ashram and then to the hot springs in Unai, where they were made to forcibly convert to Hinduism. The fieldwork of this conversion ritual was mostly done by the Hindu Jagran Manch. The tribals were animists before their conversion to Christianity. During an interview he claimed to have converted more than 40,000 people to Hinduism and demolished 30 churches in Dang district.

The RSS mouthpiece Organiser described him as "hero of the Dangs".

Allegations, arrest and acquittal

Rajasthan's anti-terrorist squad (ATS) arrested Devendra Gupta on 29 April in connection with 2007 Ajmer Dargah bombing. During the course of his interrogation, Gupta allegedly mentioned that it was Aseemanand and Sunil Joshi who had brought him into their fold and persuaded him to carry out the attacks on Ajmer Sharif and Mecca Masjid. Rajasthan ATS was led to track Aseemanand and he was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on 19 November 2010 from an ashram in Haridwar in Uttarakhand for his alleged involvement in the Ajmer Sharief, Mecca Masjid and Samjhauta Express blasts. He was charged in June 2011 by NIA for planning the blast. He was conditionally granted bail in 2015 in the blast case. After a prolonged trial Swami Assemanand was acquitted in Ajmer dargah and Mecca Masjid blast cases by NIA Special Courts in March 2017 and April 2018.

On 20 March 2019, a NIA Special court acquitted all four accused including Swami Aseemanand in Samjhauta Express Blast case. "The NIA Special Court has concluded that the investigating agency has failed to prove the conspiracy charge and ruled that accused deserve a benefit of doubt", NIA Counsel RK Handa said.

References

References

1. "Naba Kumar Sarkar vs National Investigation Agency on 28 August, 2014".
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3. (19 April 2018). "Swami Aseemanand: Myth of the Monk Who Preached Terror".
4. Reghunath, Leena Gita. (February 2014). "Swami Aseemanand's radical service to the Sangh".
5. Jaffrelot, Christophe. (March 2011). "How one non-violent Muslim changed the heart of the ideologue of Hindu bombers".
6. (2019-03-20). "Swami Aseemanand, 3 others acquitted in 2007 Samjhauta Express bombing case".
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12. (21 April 2018). "'Aseemanand's confession was not voluntary'". The Hindu.
13. (7 February 2014). "Totally False And Fabricated". Outlook India.
14. (6 February 2014). "What Aseemanand allegedly said about Narendra Modi, RSS and terror". NDTV.
15. "The transcripts of all four interviews with Aseemanand".
16. (8 February 2014). "RSS terror charges: Aseemanand threatens to sue Caravan scribe".
17. (2014-02-08). "Aseemanand threatens to launch legal action against The Caravan". The Hindu.
18. "Swami Aseemanand, as I know him".
19. Jaffrelot, Christophe. (5 February 2011). "Paradigm Shifts by the RSS? Lessons from Aseemanand's Confession". [[Economic and Political Weekly]].
20. (27 November 2010). "My son has been framed, says Aseemananda's mother". The Indian Express.
21. (16 January 2011). "Terror has a new colour". The Asian Age.
22. "IV. Violence in Gujarat".
23. "Politics by Other Means: Attacks Against Christians in India". United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
24. Caravan, The. "How the Sangh conducted its ghar vapsi programmes in Gujarat's Dangs district".
25. (2018-04-17). "Aseemanand's journey from 'hero of Dangs' to terror attacks accused".
26. (20 November 2010). "Terror probe: CBI arrests Aseemanand in Haridwar". The Indian Express.
27. (7 January 2011). "Aseemanand confessed role in Samjhauta blast, claims probe". The Indian Express.
28. "NIA Ok with Bail for Aseemanand in Samjhauta Express Terror Case".
29. IANS. (17 April 2018). "Acquitted in two cases, Aseemanand still faces Samjautha case trial". The Newsminute.
30. (20 March 2019). "NIA fails to find killers of 68 Samjhauta Express passengers".