Hindu right-wing activist Swami Aseemanand, an accused in several terror cases, has moved a court seeking to withdraw his application to turn a witness in the Ajmer Dargah blast case even as the Rajasthan Anti-Terrorism Squad on Friday said it is planning to file a chargesheet against him on April 8.
Rajasthan Anti Terrorist Squared has arrested one more person from Gujarat in connection with the 2007 Ajmer dargah blast case following interrogation of Swami Aseemanand whose custody was on Saturday extended till February 11.
A team of Central Bureau of Investigation officials and the Rajasthan Anti-Terrorism Squad is camping in western Madhya Pradesh in connection with the Samjhauta Express and Ajmer Dargah bomb blasts that took place couple of years ago and has questioned 10 people so far.
Aseemanand, a member of right-wing Hindu group Abhinav Bharat, has been in jail since December 2010.
'The country's home ministry has misused investigating agencies in the most illegal, corrupt, inhuman and unjustified way to trap innocents like me in terror traps,' says RSS leader Indresh Kumar, who terror accused Swami Aseemanand alleged knew of plots to bomb the Samjhauta Express, the Mecca Masjid and the Ajmer Dargah.
National Investigating Agency on Monday filed another appeal in a local court in Dewas, Madhya Pradesh seeking the transfer of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh worker Sunil Joshi murder case to a special court in Bhopal. The court has posted the matter for hearing on August 9.
At least 10 people, who were allegedly involved in a spate of terror attacks in different parts of the country, had links with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or its affiliated organisations, Union Home Secretary R K Singh said on Tuesday.
'It is hard to connect this Hindu terror mastermind over-drive with the Swami Aseemanand of tribal simplicity and boundless energy, whom I have known since the last 11 years and interacted with closely.'
Swami Aseemanand, an accused in 2007 Samjhauta Express blast case, was granted bail by the Punjab and Haryana high court but he is unlikely to come out of jail as he is facing a trial in two other blast cases.
Judge Dinesh Gupta let off the right-wing activist and six others, giving them "benefit of doubt".
Swami Aseemanand appears to have become a habitual retractor. After his explosive interview in to the Caravan, the accused in the Samjhauta Express, Hyderabad Mecca Masjid and Ajmer Dargah blasts denied speaking to the magazine.
Even though the NIA claims that more than 90 per cent of cases charge-sheeted have ended in conviction, the figure is likely misleading. To date, very few cases investigated by the NIA have resulted in a completed trial, points out former CBI joint director Navneet Rajan Wasan.
'If there is effective prosecution, only then we will get justice, but first let them (NIA) run the case honestly in court.'
If terror indeed has no religion, no partisan affiliations, and if the government, media and all right-minded people in this country people truly believe that, let us not call one blast a "terrorist incident" and dismiss another one as a mere "cylinder blast" just because it is politically convenient, says Shehzad Poonawala.'If terror indeed has no religion, no partisan affiliations, and if the government, media and all right-minded people in this country truly believe that, let us not call one blast a "terrorist incident" and dismiss another one as a mere "cylinder blast" just because it is politically convenient,' argues Shehzad Poonawalla.
If this election is about Narendra Modi, then it is also about the RSS, notes Mihir S Sharma.
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