Complainant in Ajmer blast case to file fresh application
THE COMPLAINANT’S LAWYER SAID DESPITE THE NIA FINDING PRAGYA SINGH AND INDRESH KUMAR COMPLICIT, THE AGENCY DROPPED THE PROBE AGAINST THEM IN ITS CLOSURE REPORT
Syed Sarwar Chishty, the complainant in the Ajmer Dargah blast case, will file an application for a fresh probe, Chishty’s lawyer Idrish Mugal told HT.
The blast at the Sufi shrine in Ajmer in October 2007 killed three and injured 17. A special court in Jaipur on March 8 found Hindu extremists Devendra Gupta, Bhavesh Patel and now deceased Sunil Joshi guilty in the case, while it acquitted former RSS member Aseemanand and six others.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on April 3 filed a closure report that cleared Sadhvi Pragya Singh, senior RSS leader Indresh Kumar and two others of involvement in the case.
Pragya Singh was accused of being a member of Abhinav Bharat, a Hindu extremist outfit allegedly floated by military officer Lt Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit, while Indresh Kumar’s allegiance also reportedly lay with the group.
Complainant’s lawyer Idrish Mugal said despite the country’s premier probe agency finding Pragya Singh and Indresh Kumar complicit in the blast conspiracy in its charge sheets, the agency dropped the investigation against them in its closure report.
The charge sheet 92B filed by the NIA states that on the basis of probe it has emerged that Pragya Singh participated in a meeting at Devendra Gupta’s house in Jamtara, Jharkhand in March 2007, where a detailed discussion for carrying out the blasts in Ajmer and Hyderabad took place.
However, the NIA in its closure report submitted that the mere naming of Pragya Singh by witnesses does not prove her complete involvement in the case. Furthermore, the witnesses later turned hostile and no other evidence was found against her in nine years. Therefore, the report said there is no need for any further investigation against her.
The investigation against Indresh Kumar too was dropped on similar grounds.
“The witnesses turned hostile in the court but the NIA had recorded the statements of the witnesses before a magistrate. The agency should have gone on with the investigation regardless of the witnesses turning hostile, but it dropped the investigation voluntarily, and against the spirit of its own charge sheets,” said Mugal.
Two Special Investigation Team officers visited the office of late India Administrative Service officer Anurag Tiwari, who was allegedly murdered for being “aware of some big scam” in his department, as claimed by his family.
Tiwari, 36, was found dead under mysterious circumstances in the middle of the road near the state guest house on Meera Bai Marg in Lucknow on May 17. He was the commissioner of the food and civil supplies department.
The officers were accompanied by Tiwari’s brother, Manish, to the Karnataka-cadre IAS officer’s room.
Speaking to Hindustan Times, Manish said he welcome the probe but was not satisfied. “Only an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation will be able to bring to light the conspiracy,” he said.