A retired army officer is among two persons who were arrested on Tuesday in connection with September 29 Malegaon bomb blast, five days after sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and two others were held in the case.

The two arrested on Tuesday were identified as Major (Retd) Ramesh Upadhyay from Pune and Sameer Kulkarni from Indore in Madhya Pradesh. The duo are to be produced before a magistrate's court in Nashik on Wednesday, police sources said.

Upadhyay, who is the working President of the voluntary organisation 'Abhinav Bharat' in Pune, was picked up from his residence for questioning by Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist Squad last week.

The organisation allegedly formed in 2006 in its website claims it was formed with the aim of combating terrorism and rebuilding the nation around the Hindu culture.

However, the website of the Hindutva outfit, allegedly involved in the Malegaon blasts, disappeared from cyberspace, sources said.

Kulkarni, who was taken for questioning from Indore, is also linked with 'Abhinav Bharat' and a former member of BJP's student front Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad.

Three persons, including the 38-year-old sadhvi, were arrested last Thursday in connection with the blast in Malegaon, the communally sensitive powerloom town, which claimed six lives.

Pragnya Singh, who hails from Bhind district of Madhya Pradesh, was accused of having provided the motorcycle used in the blast at Bhikku Chawk on the eve of Eid-ul-Fitr.

A court in Nashik has already given permission to ATS to subject the sadhvi to narco-analysis and polygraph tests next month.

An ATS team of Maharashtra police had camped in Pune and parts of Madhya Pradesh to trace the suspects linked to Malegaon blasts.