Five accused including Aseemanand acquitted in Mecca Masjid blast, judge who gave the verdict resigns

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) special court has acquitted all five accused in the Mecca Masjid blast case on Monday. The pipe bomb explosion on 18 May, 2007, in the historic Hyderabad mosque had claimed eight lives and left 58 injured. Ten members of Right-wing organisation Abhinav Bharat, including Swami Aseemanand, Devender Gupta, Lokesh Sharma alias Ajay Tiwari, Lakshman Das Maharaj, Mohanlal Rateshwar and Rajender Chowdhary, were accused in the case.

According to reports, the judges observed that none of the evidence proved that the five were involved in the Mecca Masjid blast case. The NIA had linked the bomb blasts of Ajmer Sharif Dargah (2007), Malegaon blasts of 2006 and 2008, Modasa in Gujarat (2008) and the Samjhauta Express blast of 2006 with the Mecca Masjid blast. Swami Aseemanand was acquitted in the Ajmer Sharif case in March 2017.

These cases filed against Right-wing activists during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) 2 regime led to the coining of the term ‘saffron terror’. However, with the change in regime, the investigative agencies are failing to prove the charges against these leaders.

While all five chargesheeted in the Mecca Masjid case have been acquitted, two accused – Ramchandra Kalsangra and Sandeep Dange – are absconding. Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) functionary and accused in the case, Sunil Joshi, was shot during the investigation.

Soon after the NIA court’s judgement, counsel of those acquitted, JP Sharma said the NIA failed to prove a single charge against the accused and it also failed to provide any evidence. Speaking to NDTV, Sharma said the court after seeing all the documents on record said “the prosecution has failed to prove a single charge against them.” He further added, besides the confessional statement by Aseemanand, which is not admissible in the court, “there was not single evidence provided by the NIA.”

The case was transferred to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) after an initial investigation was done by the local police. The CBI later filed the chargesheet in the case. In 2011, the NIA took over the case. Reportedly, during the trail 411 documents were exhibited and 226 witnesses were examined. This year, Lt Col Shrikant Purohit, a witness in the case, had turned hostile.

Update

The special NIA judge who gave the verdict in the case, Ravinder Reddy, has put in his resignation. He has cited “personal reasons” for his decision.