Author: PTI
Publication: Yahoo News
Date: February 1, 2011
URL: http://in.news.yahoo.com/rss-rejects-burney-apology-pursue-case-against-him-20110201-044500-697.html
The RSS today rejected the apology tendered
by Aziz Burney, the editor of an Urdu newspaper, for hinting in a book that
the organisation was behind the 26/11 conspiracy and said that the criminal
case against him would not be withdrawn.
"The apology tendered by Aziz Burney
is in RSS'' view not sufficient ground to withdraw the case registered against
him in a Navi Mumbai court", senior RSS leader Ram Madhav said here.
He said the charges against Burney are "much
more serious" as his writings tantamount to treason and, hence, RSS would
not accept his apology nor withdraw the case against him.
Burney hit national headlines in December
2010 when he wrote a book titled ''RSS Ka Shadyantra, 26/11 (RSS conspiracy,
26/11)'' and invited Congress leader Digvijay Singh to its launch.
Burney had compiled his articles written on
the 26/11 terror strikes and the conspiracy behind them into the book, where
he had differed from the investigating agencies'' conclusion that no saffron
terror activists were involved in the carnage.
It was at this book''s launch on December
6 where Singh had said that Mumbai ATS chief Hemant Karkare had called him,
hours before he was killed in the terror attacks, to tell him about threats
he had received for probing Hindu extremists and their terror links.
Burney, however, tendered an apology on Jan
29, saying that he would like to "clarify and apologise if he has hurt
anyone by the title of his book and is happy to change the title" if
that would assuage feelings.
Claiming that he did not want to weaken India''s
stand in the fight against terror or link RSS to the incident, he urged the
organisation to withdraw the case registered against him.
RSS sources said that, notwithstanding Burney''s
apology, the complainant of the case Vinay Joshi is likely to send a legal
notice via his lawyer to senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh for "joining
the debate with Burney" and making public statements regarding RSS''
alleged role in 26/11 conspiracy.
