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Brains Behind NJ Temple Bombings Arrested
Officials release graphic chat transcripts from Temple bombing suspects gallery HACKENSACK -- Nineteen year old Aakash Dalal was the brains behind a string of attacks that terrorized the Bergen County Jewish community between December and January, police alleged on Friday. Aakash Dalal, a Lodi resident and student at Rutgers University, is the second man jugged in connection to the attacks, which began as petty vandalism and took a violent turn with the Molotov cocktailing of two synogogues last month. Another 19-year-old Lodi man, Anthony M. Graziano, is accused of wielding the Molotov cocktails that were thrown into the window of the Congregation Beth El temple in Rutherford. But police say Dalal, Graziano's childhood friend, was behind the scenes, prodding him along. He is charged with aggravated arson, conspiracy to commit aggravated arson, bias intimidation and two counts of criminal mischief. He's being held on $2.5 million bail. Graziano, who has already plead not guilty to his charges, faces additional counts after the investigation found that both men were present in the cases of anti-Semitic graffiti at Jewish temples in December of last year, Molinelli said. Dalal, whose academic status at Rutgers is unclear, was described as a religious agnostic.
It was the Congregation Beth El temple in Rutherford, where authorities allege Graziano flung Molotov cocktails into the windows of the upstairs residence while Rabbi Nosson Schuman and his family slept on Jan. 11. "In hindsight, it makes sense that they are two [suspects]," Schuman told The Record Friday. "The person they caught today is more the criminal mastermind behind the attacks, and Graziano is the pawn carrying out the attacks." Molinelli also revealed Friday that Graziano was in the process of obtaining a gun when he was apprehended in January. "I am certain that we were within weeks away of a tragedy," he said.
Posted by: trailing wife 2012-03-03 |
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