BHOPAL: Eight years after he created a storm with his statement on the 26/11 death of Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare , senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Thursday claimed, “I never held RSS responsible for the death of Hemant Karkare.”The former chief minister, who has been fielded by the Congress party from Bhopal Lok Sabha constituency, was speaking to the media on Thursday evening.When he was asked if he still stands by the controversial statements he made during his tenure as AICC general secretary, Digvijaya Singh denied he ever made any controversial statement.In December 2010, Digvijaya Singh had triggered a controversy when he said that Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare who was investigating the Malegaon blasts case, spoke to him just two hours before the first 26/11 terror strike in Mumbai.Digvijaya Singh had repeatedly claimed that Hemant Karkare was receiving death threats from anonymous callers after he made arrests of Hindu extremists in the Malegaon case.The senior leader had said to a national news channel that martyred Hemant Karkare seemed very depressed and told him that “he was getting threatening calls from the RSS and RSS mouthpiece charged his 17-year-old son of having received a contract of Rs 25 crore from Dubai.”.“He was almost a broken man the way he was being hounded by the RSS leaders,” he had told the national TV channel. “That night at 10:30 I came to know that he is no more. And the first impression that came to me was, “O God, they have taken him.”Digvijaya Singh’s statement on Hemant Karkare made the BJP to condemn his claim, the Congress disassociated themselves from it and Hemant Karkare’s widow Kavita Karkare had said that Singh’s statement would help Pakistan.On Thursday, however, the Congress leader denied he had ever linked the RSS and Hindu organisations to the martyrdom of Hemant Karkare.Asked about another of his provocative allegations that the September 2008 Batla House encounter which killed two terrorists and a police officer was “fake”, Digvijaya Singh said, “About Batla House encounter, I said what I said.”Over the years, the senior Congress leader has hurled many accusations against the RSS. But facing the Lok Sabha elections from Bhopal, a saffron bastion since 1989, Digvijaya Singh said on Thursday that he has no dispute with the RSS. “Bhopal is a challenge of ideology. I have no dispute with the RSS which is a Hindu organisation and not a political party. If it is a social organisation like they say, then I am a Hindu so what do they have against me?”