Originally floated by freedom fighter V D Savarkar in 1904 to carry out an armed struggle against the British and revived in post-Independence India, the Abhinav Bharat hit the headlines almost two decades ago after some of its members, including Lt Col Prasad Purohit, were accused of masterminding the 2008 Malegaon blasts.

On Thursday, as a special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court acquitted all the accused in the case, Milind Joshirao, a Pune resident who claims to be the organisation’s head, said false allegations had been levelled against the outfit and the term “saffron terror” was coined. “The judgment shows that all allegations against Abhinav Bharat and Hindus arrested in the bomb blast case were false,” he said, hailing the verdict.

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Savarkar, also a Hindutva ideologue, had dissolved Abhinav Bharat in 1952, saying there was no need for an armed struggle in independent India and urged the youth to join the defence forces to serve the country. It was revived only in 2006 in Raigad by his brother Narayan’s daughter-in-law Himani Savarkar, along with a group of historians, intellectuals, and activists. Himani, who later became the President of the revived organisation, is the daughter of Gopal Godse, the elder brother of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse.

According to Himani, Abhinav Bharat, which was registered as a Trust on February 9, 2007, was revived to “generate a sense of patriotism among youth,” create awareness on social issues and apprise them about “injustice being meted out against Hindus”. The organisation aimed to fulfil its aims through lectures, discussions and seminars in colleges and public platforms within and outside Maharashtra.

According to investigators who probed the Malegaon blasts, the Abhinav Bharat was an “organised crime syndicate” whose members had been active since 2003. It was alleged that Lt Col Purohit, who was accused of procuring explosives from Kashmir for the attack, played a key part in the organisation’s revival.

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Investigators also claimed that the Abhinav Bharat wanted to “turn India into a Hindu Rashtra called Aryavart and place a government-in-exile” as its members were “dissatisfied with the Constitution”. Its members were also accused of planning to train people in guerrilla warfare to eliminate people who opposed a Hindu Rashtra.

“It is unfortunate that an organisation undertaking constructive activities for society was harassed,” Purohit said after the verdict.

Maharashtra ATS chargesheet claimed that Himani, in her statement, mentioned that Purohit discussed the Malegaon location during a meeting in Bhopal for taking revenge against Muslims. However, in a January 2009 interaction with The Indian Express she denied making any such mention in her statement during the probe.

She passed away in 2015.

Her son Satyaki Savarkar said his mother “suffered a lot due to this case as false narratives of saffron terrorism were propagated”.

Another acquitted member of the Abhinav Bharat, Ajay Rahirkar, was the treasurer of the organisation at the time of his arrest in 2008. Investigators alleged that Rahikar’s house in Erandwane of Pune served as the “head office” of Abhinav Bharat. However, Rahikar’s advocate Nitin Apte said the body is a registered Trust and was not banned by the government.

Joshirao, whom the NIA declared hostile, said though Abhinav Bharat was branded as an extremist outfit and its documents were seized, it continued to work in the “national interest”. “I had told the court on record how I was threatened by ATS officers to implicate RSS leaders and (Uttar Pradesh CM) Yogi Adityanath,” he said.