ASEEMANAND, 6 OTHERS LET OFF IN 2007 AJMER BOMBING CASE

A Jaipur court on Wednesday convicted three people, but let off former RSS member Aseemanand and six others in the 2007 Ajmer Dargah blast case in which 26 witnesses turned hostile.

The quantum of punishment will be decided on March 16.

Three people were killed and 15 injured in an explosion at the famous shrine of Sufi saint Khawaja Moinuddin Chisti in Rajasthan’s Ajmer on October 11, 2007. NIA court judge Dinesh Gupta found Rashtriya Swayamsweak Sangh members Sunil Joshi and Devendra Gupta guilty of planning the blasts — one of the two bombs didn’t go off — and Bhavesh Bhai Patel of planting the explosive.

The court acquitted Aseemanand, also an accused in the Samjhauta Express and Mecca Masjid blasts, and others, giving them the “benefit of doubt”.

The three blasts, within months of each other, came to be known as acts of Hindu terror — a term that triggered a furious political debate — because of the arrests of the members of the right-wing outfits.

“We will examine the order of the court and take a call accordingly in due course. At the moment, it will be too premature to say anything,” director-general of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Sharad Kumar said. The NIA took over the probe from the Rajasthan anti-terrorism squad. Initially, police blamed Islamic terror groups but later a confession by Aseemanand shifted the focus on Hindu groups.