Nagpur: 

Don't know her: The Bhonsala School's Nagpur branch director admitted yesterday that one ex-serviceman under probe for his association with main Malegaon blast accused Pragya Singh Thakur (in veil) was associated with the school

The Bhonsala Military School has categorically denied imparting terrorist training to the September 29 Malegaon bomb blast accused or anyone else in the past.

"We heard the names of the Malegaon bomb accused, including Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, for the first time when reports about their arrest appeared in the print and electronic media in the past few days," the school's Nagpur branch director Satish Salpekar said yesterday.

The Bhonsala Military School in Nashik and its branch in Godhni near Nagpur prepares students for entrance exams to the National Defence Academy (NDA).

Salpekar, however, admitted that the school had allowed the Bajrang Dal to use its premises and apparatus for its "personality development camp" in 2001, free of cost.

Links to suspects
 
He also confirmed media reports that retired Army officer Major Prabhakar Kulkarni, presently under the scanner of the Maharashtra police's Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) for imparting training in the use of RDX to the Malegaon bomb accused, was associated with the school in Nashik, first as its commandant and then as secretary of the educational institute that ran it till a few years ago.

Salpekar clarified that the two other ex-servicemen reportedly under ATS probe, Major Ramesh Upadhyay and Major Y D Sahasrabuddhe, were never associated with the  Bhonsala Military School.