Mecca Masjid blast case Swami Aseemanand, acquitted in 2007 case
Mecca Masjid blast case Swami Aseemanand, acquitted in 2007 case
The blast at the historic Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad on May 18, 2007, during Friday prayers had claimed nine lives and left 58 others injured. After initial investigation by local police, the case was transferred to the Central Bureau Of Investigation (CBI), which filed a charge sheet. Subsequently, the NIA took over the case from the CBI in 2011.
A National Investigation Agency (NIA) had originally charged 10 persons with plotting and carrying out the attack using an improvised explosive device (IED) on May 18, 2007, a powerful explosion killed nine people and injured 58 people during Friday prayers near the iconic Charminar in Hyderabad
A total of three charge sheets were filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the NIA
The city police, which initially took up the investigation, blamed Harkatul Jihad Islami and rounded up about 100 Muslim youths. All those arrested and jailed were acquitted in 2008 and the subsequent investigations by the CBI in 2010 revealed that the blast was the handiwork of Hindu rightwing group Abhinav Bharat. The case was handed over to NIA on April 4, 2011.
The fact-finding committee of the National Minorities Commission found that the youths were arrested on charges of terrorism and police kept them in illegal confinement and tortured them.
In 2012, the government of then-united Andhra Pradesh paid a compensation of Rs 300,000 each to 26 people who were acquitted and Rs 20,000 each to 50 people. Others were let off by the police after interrogation.
A National Investigation Agency (NIA) Special Court at Nampally in Hyderabad on Monday, citing lack of evidence, acquitted five accused, including Naba Kumar Sarkar alias Swami Aseemanand, in the case of the bomb attack on the Mecca Masjid in the city
Swami Aseemanand, a self-proclaimed monk and a former Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh activist, was first arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the Mecca Masjid case in 2010. Aseemanand, whose real name is Naba Kumar Sarkar. He hails from Hooghly district in West Bengal and is a post-graduate in Botany. He is also known by aliases Jiten Chatterjee and Omkarnath. He started working whole time for “Adivasi Kalyan Ashram” of RSS in Birbhum, Bankura and Purulia districts of West Bengal from 1977.
The others acquitted are Devendra Gupta, Lokesh Sharma, Bharath Mohan Lal Rateshwar and Rajendra Choundary.
Accused Sunil Joshi of Madhya Pradesh, a former Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) pracharak, was murdered when the case was investigated.
Two other accused, former RSS pracharak Sandeep V. Dange and RSS activist and electrician Ramchandra Kalsangra, also from Madhya Pradesh, have been eluding the investigators.
Investigations against two others from the same State, Tejram Parmar and Amith Chowhan, are continuing.
Besides the Mecca Masjid blasts case, Aseemanand was accused of being involved in the Ajmer, Malegaon and Samjhauta Express blast cases. An NIA special court, in March 2017, acquitted him in the 2007 Ajmer blast case.
During a confession before a metropolitan magistrate at the Tis Hazari courts in Delhi in 2010, Aseemanand had stated that he and other activists were involved in bombings at various places of worship across the country, such as Ajmer Sharif and Hyderabad’s Mecca Masjid, and in Malegaon and on Samjhauta Express for taking revenge against the “terror acts of Muslims.”
In the 42-page confession, recorded in Hindi, Aseemanand said he joined hands with several radical Hindu activists, including senior RSS leader Indresh Kumar, slain Sangh pracharak Sunil Joshi, and Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, to answer every Islamist terror act with “a bomb for bomb’’ policy.
In his confession, Aseemanand had said Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad was chosen because the Nizam of Hyderabad had wanted to opt for Pakistan during Partition.
Now Aseemanand is facing trial only in the Samjhauta Express blast case. The case pertains to the powerful explosion that took place in two coaches of Samjhauta Express on February 19, 2007 killing 68 people, mostly Pakistanis who were on their way to Lahore from New Delhi.
Lt Col Purohit declared hostile witness in Mecca Masjid blast case: Lt Col Prasad Purohit, an accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, on February 15, 2018, turned hostile while deposing in a Hyderabad court as a witness in the 2007 Mecca Masjid bomb blast case. Purohit had been listed as a witness by the CBI in the case related to the blast at the Mecca Masjid. The case was later taken over by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen Owaisi alleged that most of the witnesses in the Mecca Masjid blast case had turned hostile after June 2014 and the NIA either didn't pursue the case as was expected from it or was not allowed by its political masters to do so. the Modi government did not even appeal against the bail given to the accused earlier.
During the Mecca Masjid blast trial, a total of 226 witnesses were examined and as many as 411 documents were exhibited.
NIA will examine the court judgment after we get a copy of the same and decide further course of action,” said agency spokesperson Alok Mittal.
NIA, the country’s anti-terror organization, can file an appeal against the acquittal of the accused before the high court. Families of the victims can also approach the high court against their acquittal.
The above cases once again prove and show that NIA needs to become a professional investigative agency , needs to learn from CIA and FBI.
One more failure of NIA to find the evidence and see that criminals go behind bars.
If above accused did nothing then who do it , it is responsiblity of BJP government to tell Indian citizens who did the blast, who did the terror attacks.
Reality views by sm -
Monday, April 16, 2018
Tags – Aseemanand Bomb Blast Case No Evidence