[Reader-list] Meet Dayanand Pandey

[Nitesh Bhatnagar]

Was J&K ex-governor close to terror suspect?
NDTV Correspondent
Monday, November 17, 2008, (Srinagar)

The Malegaon blast investigations just got messier with former Chief
Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Mufti Mohammed Syed demanding that the
Centre investigate the links between former Jammu and Kashmir Governor
Lt General S K Sinha and terror suspect Dayanand Pandey.

Syed says that there were reports that Pandey, the alleged mastermind
behind the Malegaon blasts, was the guest of the Governor in 2007.
(Watch)

The former J&K Chief Minister said: "They say Dayanand Pandey came in
2007 and even before that he was here. He is the mastermind of the
Malegaon blast. He has been arrested. He was the guest of His
Excellency Governor retired General S K Sinha. I think the
investigating officer has made this revelation that they have
interrogated him. ATS did it and they have the admission, it should be
thoroughly probed. I don't know if General S K Sinha is involved. I
can't say that, but they were close."

Self-styled guru Dayanand Pandey, arrested by Maharashtra's
Anti-Terror Squad from Kanpur, is a man of many faces.

In the police files he is Dayanand Pandey, the man who with Lieutenant
Colonel S Purohit was part of the Malegaon blast conspiracy. The
association reportedly goes back to their days together in Srinagar.
The police stumbled onto him through Purohit's confessions.

In his hometown Kanpur, he was called Sudhakar Dwivedi. He lived with
his father Uday Dhar Dwivedi, a retired inspector of Uttar Pradesh
Police, finally arrested from the house of his brother Pushkar
Dwivedi, an advocate in Rawatpur.

As a young man, he put himself through religious studies at Varanasi's
Sampoornanand Vidyalay. He was called Amritanand.

In 2006, he went to Gorakhpur as Jagatguru Shankracharya on the
invitation of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Shiv Pratap Shukla.
Somebody questioned his identity and he fled.

In Faridabad Mata Mandir, he was a regular visitor going by the grand
title of Jagatguru Swami Amritanand Devtirth Maraharj. He met people,
mostly VIP visitors only in the night making ashram workers
suspicious.

In Jammu, where he claimed to be the president of Sharda Peeth, he
called himself Swami Amritanand. The Peeth is an important body for
Kashmiri Pandits. After being ousted for misappropriating funds, he
founded a rival body, Sharda Sarvgya Peeth. And went by alias Swami
Amritanand Dev Teerth.

However, sources say it's finally in Srinagar where Dayanand Pandey
moved to in 2002-2003, living close to the cantonment area. He
reportedly met Lieutenant Colonel Purohit and sourced weapons from
him.

Police believe his many identities and his saffron garb offered a
perfect cover to network terror activities.






Pandey involved in Amarnath land agitation: Police
Ramesh Vinayak
Chandigarh,  November 14, 2008	

http://indiatoday.digitaltoday.in/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=20195&sectionid=4&issueid=79&Itemid=1

The controversial godman, Dayanand Pandey, currently under arrest by
the Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) of the Mumbai Police for his alleged
involvement in the Malegaon blasts, had played "an active role" in the
RSS-backed agitation over the Shri Amarnath land transfer issue in
Jammu three months ago, according to security officials.

Security agencies in Jammu and Kashmir have put under the scanner
Pandey's activities during the agitation spearheaded by the Shri
Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti, a conglomerate of Jammu-based political,
social and religious organisations.

Pandey, who introduced himself as Shankaracharya Swami Amritanand Dev
Teerth, had even addressed a press conference in Jammu in support of
the agitation and his statements were published in the RSS mouthpiece
'Organiser'. Also, his photographs with former Jammu and Kashmir
governor Jagmohan were published in the local media.

The J&K Police has begun investigations into the affairs of the
Kashyapmeru Shankaracharya Amrit Anand Vedic Vishav Kalyana Trust,
located near Katra, about 40 km from Jammu, and run by Pandey.

A team of police made enquiries into the Trust, its members and
financial sources on Thursday. It questioned the employees but no
arrests or seizures were made.

"The investigations into Pandey's activities would gather pace once we
get a report on his interrogation from the Mumbai Police," IG-P Jammu
R. Rajendra said.

The police authorities are also scanning newspaper reports on a press
conference that Pandey had addressed in Jammu at the height of the
agitation to ascertain his connections with the local politicians.

Meanwhile, the ATS has moved an application in the Nasik court seeking
search warrants for Pandey-owned Trust near Katra. Armed with the
search warrant, the ATS team is expected to land at Jammu by Sunday to
further carry out the probe into godman's antecedents and network of
followers.






Jammu mahant in Malegaon blast net


Express News Service
Posted: Nov 13, 2008 at 0038 hrs IST
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/jammu-mahant-in-malegaon-blast-net/385013/

Lucknow, Jammu, Mumbai, November 12 PICKED UP IN KANPUR: Pandey
changed names, he backed Amarnath agitation; ATS alleges role in plot
The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), probing the Malegaon blast
case, today detained Mahant Amritanand alias Dayanand Pandey, the head
of the Sharda Sarvagya Peeth in Jammu, from his brother's house in
Kanpur. The Mahant will be produced in court tomorrow and the ATS will
seek a transit remand to take him to Mumbai for questioning.

ATS Joint Commissioner of Police Hemant Karkare told reporters in
Mumbai that the Mahant had a role in the blast conspiracy and had
attended several meetings in different parts of the country along with
other arrested accused.

"Pandey has deep links with some of the arrested accused. He played a
major role in the Malegaon blast conspiracy, and attended several
meetings at places such as Bhopal, Indore, Deolali and Bhonsala
Military School. He used several aliases and we are still verifying
certain details. We cannot say for certain at this stage whether he is
an ex-serviceman. He was mentioned by several of the arrested accused
such as Purohit and Raikar, and we had his photograph and mobile phone
numbers," Karkare said.

In Jammu, police questioned chartered accountant V K Kapoor and his
son Pawan after the address of a trust the Mahant runs — Kashyapmeru
Shankaracharya Amritanand Vedic Vishva Kalyan Trust — turned out to be
their office-cum-residence at 248, Sector-1 A, Trikuta Nagar. The
Kapoors said the Mahant used ATS picks up Jammu mahant from Kanpur the
address to get the trust registered since he did not have a place of
his own.

The Mahant, who moved around Jammu under police escort, is known to
senior officials. He has been visiting Kashmiri Pandit camps — the
Sharda Peeth shrine is in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and Kashmiri
Pandits have been demanding that they be allowed to visit it through
the cross-LoC route — and been to the Valley several times. During the
Jammu agitation over the Amarnath shrine land transfer, he addressed a
press conference along with the Shri Amarnath Sangarsh Samiti convenor
Leela Karn Sharma at Geeta Bhawan.

Sharma today said: "Many people, including religious gurus used to
visit us, to extend support at that time. We knew nothing about them.
He (the Mahant) was a very high profile, religious person. He even
expressed concern about my safety, asked me to give him an
application. He said he would talk to the Union Home Minister about
getting me police protection."

In Lucknow, UP Addl DG (Law and Order) Brij Lal said: "The original
identity of the suspect (Mahant) was Sudhakar Dwivedi, a native of
Varanasi. The house from where the detention was made is owned by his
brother Pushkar Dwivedi who is a lawyer in Kanpur. Maharashtra ATS ACP
Manmohan Kulkarni came with a Nashik court order and a team of the UP
ATS helped them in the operation."

The ATS landed at Bakarmandi Rawatpur locality in Kalyanpur area of
Kanpur and picked up the Mahant around 2.30 pm.

According to Brij Lal, Pandey identified himself as Mahant Amritanand,
the peethadheeshwar of Sharda Sarvagya Peeth in Jammu. He told police
he had been living at 248, Sector-1 A, Trikuta Nagar in Jammu since
2003.

The Mahant told police he changed his name from Sudhakar Dwivedi to
Dayanand Pandey eight years ago when he joined the peeth. His guru, he
said, gave him the name Amritanand on completion of deeksha.

In Jammu, charted accountant V K Kapoor told The Indian Express that
he came in contact with the Mahant some years ago at the residence of
former BJP MLA Rishi Kumar Koushal who founded the Jammu Praja
Parishad. The Mahant told Kapoor he wanted to float a charitable trust
and sought his services as a chartered accountant.

"I agreed. Since he did not have any premises to open the trust
office, he wanted to use my office-cum-residence address for the
registration," Kapoor said, adding that the trust was registered in
2003.

He said he use to file the annual returns of the trust with the Income
Tax department in Jammu. He is said to have told police that he had
been asking the Mahant to change the trust address.

"Barring this, we knew nothing about him. Even I did not know him as
Pandey. We only knew his name was Jagadguru Shankaracharya Swami
Amritanannad Dev Teerath, Sarvaghyapeethadishwar," Kapoor said.

Ajay Charangoo, convenor of Panun Kashmir, said the Mahant had visited
his residence four-five years ago. "He was introduced to me as a
religious saint, I was not aware of his antecedents," he said. R L
Bhat of Sanjeevi Sharda Kendra, another organisation of Kashmiri
Pandits, said he had met the Mahant many times at functions. "He was a
high profile person, moving under police escort. He used to visit
migrant camps to give religious talks," Bhat said.





Pandey has huge J&K following
Ishfaq-ul-Hassan
Friday, November 14, 2008  03:50 IST
					
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1206282

SRINAGAR: Dayanand Pandey, alias Swami Amritanand Dev, the
self-proclaimed seer of  Sharda Sarvagya Peeth in Pakistan-occupied
Kashmir (PoK), has a huge fan-following in Jammu & Kashmir. Pandey,
who is from Kanpur, has been visiting J&K since 2004, frequently
touring migrant camps in Jammu.
"We did not know his antecedents," a Pandit leader in Jammu said. "We
did not even know his name was Dayanand Pandey. He was called
Jagatguru Shankaracharya."
Pandey played a part in the Amarnath land agitation in Jammu. He had
visited the office of Shri Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti (SASS) in Jammu.
He also donated Rs25,000 to SASS, its leader Anand Sharma said.

He used to visit Srinagar and stay at the highly fortified Zeethyar
temple on the banks of the Dal Lake. "He also used to visit ancient
temples at Mattan, Tulmulla and other parts of the valley," a Kashmiri
Pandit leader who has not migrated said. "He used to bring his own
chair, cup, plate and glass along. He used to sit only on his chair.
He was served food only in his plate," he said.





Left out in the cold, mentor denies links

11/14/2008 4:43:03 PM
http://www.timesnow.tv/Newsdtls.aspx?NewsID=20977

Dayanand Pandey (third from left) seen in this picture with former
president APJ Abdul Kalam (extreme right)
Pictures of Malegaon blast accused Guru Dayanand Pandey with political
heavyweights have raised several questions but now Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) leaders and his mentors have distanced themselves from
him.

Pandey's website Sarvagyapeeth.com shows the self-styled
Shankarcharya. The website also has the names of former BJP ideologue
N Govindacharya and some other politicians from various parties. The
website also has pictures of the swami with several important other
personalities, including a bureaucrat and a film star.

However, Pandey has been left in the cold by those with whom he had
been seen. Govindacharya has said he had once met Pandey many years
ago, but they were never close associates. Among those named from
various political parties, the website names Congress leader Makhan
Lal Fotedar, but the leader has clearly denied any contact with
Pandey.

Several Hindu seers have also questioned Pandey's self-proclaimed
title of Shankarcharya. Pandey has claimed that Varanasi-based seer
Narendranad Saraswati was his spiritual guru, but the Varanasi-based
monk denied his claim. Pandey left home in 1993 and assumed the new
identity of Amritanand Swami at an age of 25. He moved to Jammu in
2003 to run the Sharda Sarvagya Peeth there.

Sources say Pandey secured the title of Shankarcharya by paying a huge
sum of money to the Varanesya Vidwat Parishad, a religious body of
Varanasi. However, the Parishad has said they did not confer the title
of Shankarcharya on him. Pandey's mentor Ram Yatan Shukla, of Akhil
Bhartiya Vidwat Parishad, said, "I met him during a religious
gathering and after that we decided to give him the title of Dharma
guru but we did not give him the title of Shankarcharya."

In the pictures Pandey is also seen alongside the leaders of the
Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti, the Samiti which was at the forefront of
the protests against the decision to revoke the transfer of land to
the Amarnath Shrine Board, but the board has denied any direct links
with the swami.

Leela Karan Sharma, convener, Shri Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti, said,
"During the agitations, many people met me. He also met me, asked me
about my security, I said I had none. So, he asked me to write an
application and said that he would speak to the home ministry and
arrange it for me."

In yet another picture prominently displayed on the website of
Dayanand Pandey is seen in the company of former President APJ Abdul
Kalam. The former President's office has clarified that many people
met the President and he had never refused to meet anyone.

Who is Pandey?

Dayanand Pandey is a master of disguise. Investigators say initial
interrogation has revealed that Pandey had four separate identities
and names at different times and places. In Kanpur, where he is
originally from, was known as Sudhakar Dwivedi. His father recently
retired as a sub-inspector with the Uttar Pradesh police.

In Faridabad, he was known as Swami Amritanand Dev Teerth. In
Faridabad, Pandey received several VIPs as guests. TIMES NOW have
learnt that the swami was often seen in the company of VIPs and
surfing the internet.

And, in Jammu he was called Shankarcharya or Peethadheeshwar. This
title was self-conferred. It was in Jammu and Kashmir that the swami
claimed that he met Lt Col Purohit another co-accused in the Malegaon
blasts probe.






Website portrays Pandey as crusader

14 Nov 2008, 0009 hrs IST, Pervez Iqbal Siddiqui, TNN
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Website_portrays_Pandey_as_crusader/articleshow/3710480.cms

LUCKNOW: "To restore the age-old glory of Sharda Mandir in PoK. To
make aware our countrymen about the dangers in Kashmir spreading in
the whole

country. To contribute to the struggle of displaced Hindus in their
rehabilitation. Publication of rare manuscripts of Kashmir. To
organise Dharma Bachao-Desh Bachao Yatra aur Rashtra Raksha Yagya on
the auspicious birthday of Adi Shankaracharya,'' reads the welcome
message on the home page of the website www.sarvagyapeeth.com.

The website was traced after Dayanand Pandey alias Sudhakar Dwivedi
himself provided the address to interrogators after he was picked up
from Kanpur on Wednesday in connection with the September 29 Malegaon
blast and brought to Lucknow.

On the website, Pandey is referred to as Swami Amritanand Dev Teerth
Maharaj. An August 21, 2008 news posting refers to him as Jagat Guru
Shankaracharya Swami Amritanand Dev Teerth of Sharda Sarwagya Peeth.
Investigators say that Amritanand, who has been detained by the
Anti-Terrorrism Squad (ATS), is a self-proclaimed shankaracharya and
has no association with other established peeths in India.

Investigators believe that the genuine Sarvagyapeeth actually existed
in Pak-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Sudhakar opened a peeth in Kashmir
on his own. "We are yet to establish any link between the PoK peeth
and the one launched by Sudhakar,'' said a senior officer associated
with the probe. The website shows images of the ruins of "Sharda
Sarvagya Peeth Kashmir'', however images of the peeth that Amritanand
himself is guru of show much more well-appointed surroundings.

Sources said that after his initial stay at Kanpur, Dwivedi shifted to
Varanasi and then reached Jammu in 2005-06, where he floated
Sarvagyapeeth.

Created supposedly with a copyright registration of 2007, the website
has an impressive home page. Most of the literature includes
photocopies of the January 2007 edition of the opening pages of Sharda
Sandesh, a quarterly bilingual newsletter from the Sarvagyapeeth.

As per the website, the Sarvagyapeeth has its registered office at
248, Sector 1-A, Trikuta Nagar, Jammu Tavi 180012, J&K. The phone
numbers given are 94191-90809 and 0191-2471031. While the mobile
number was unapproachable, the landline number was attended by a male.
When asked by TOI if it was the phone of Sarvagyapeeth, a sleepy voice
retorted: "Sonay do, bhai... yeh koi peeth-veeth ka number nahin hai.
(Let me sleep, brother. This is not any peeth's number)'' before
hanging up.

The camp office address is: Maa Sharika Mandir, Village Anangpur,
Faridabad (Harayana) with the email addresses shardapeeth at gmail.com
and sarvagyapeethkashmir at sancharnet.in. The cell number (9419194506)
provided was also uncontactable.

The website has notes on the Amarnath shrine, Kashmir, Ladakh, and
lists of founder members, trustees and advisors. Many sections are
under construction. However, the most impressive part of the website
is the picture gallery. Aside from images of the peeth, it shows the
swami with several important personalities, including a former
President, a film star, a bureaucrat and a stream of political
personalities. It is not known if the pictures are genuine.

Of the six trustees listed, four are said to be Padmashris, with one
hailing from Mumbai. Of the 10 founder members listed, two are from
Pune.

A separate page announces that all donations are exempted from
income-tax under Section 80G of the Income-Tax Act 1961. Sarvagyapeeth
offers three types of memberships__founder-life member (Rs 21,000),
honourable-special life member (Rs 5,100) and life member (Rs 2,100).