GOING SOFT ON TERROR?
Coming up to 11 years after a bomb killed nine people and injured 58 others in Hyderabad’s Mecca Masjid during Friday prayers, a special court of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) set all five accused free, citing a lack of evidence. K. Ravinder Reddy, fourth additional metropolitan sessions judge, Hyderabad, handed in his resignation just hours after delivering the verdict. He said he had been contemplating his resignation for some time and his decision had nothing to do with the Mecca Masjid case, though his timing caught many people by surprise and encouraged conspiracy theorists.
Asaduddin Owaisi, member of parliament for Hyderabad, said he found the judge’s decision “intriguing”. He also described the NIA as a deaf and blind parrot. For its part, the NIA says it will examine the judgment but few expect it to appeal, given the paucity of evidence.
Swami Aseemanand, a key accused, was first arrested in connection with blasts by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in 2010 before the case was transferred to the NIA. He was also an accused in the 2007 Ajmer dargah bombing that resulted in the deaths of three people and was acquitted in March last year. The NIA has not appealed. Aseemanand also faces charges in another 2007 bombing—the attack on the Samjhauta Express from New Delhi to Lahore— though, in the wake of two acquittals, a guilty verdict appears improbable. It was Aseemanand’s confession that changed the narrative around a series of bombings in 2007 and 2008 from the typical one of cross-border terrorism to one about homegrown right wing Hindu terrorists.
The Hyderabad police initially suspected a Pakistani jihadi outfit, rounding up young Muslim men and producing five suspects who had supposedly confessed to acquiring RDX from associates in Bangladesh, before handing over the investigation to the CBI. The CBI arrested Aseemanand, though he later retracted his confession, claiming it had been obtained under duress. The CBI put together a story about Hindu religious groups that “planned and executed blasts to avenge terror strikes on temples” but could not establish the links conclusively, handing over its probe to the NIA in 2011. The NIA continued on CBI lines, but has not been able to produce sufficient proof of its theories in court.
Either the CBI or the NIA, or both have apparently botched the probe and the prosecution. According to insiders, who wish to remain anonymous, the NIA investigators did not adequately prepare the 226 witnesses it listed for the trial, a large proportion of whom turned hostile. Indeed, hostile witnesses have been a feature of proceedings for the Ajmer dargah, Samjhauta Express and Malegaon bombings as well. In the latter case, special public prosecutor Rohini Salian said that since the BJP had come to power at the Centre, she had been urged by the NIA to go easy on the accused. It is in keeping with the suspicion of government critics who claim there is little appetite to follow up on the actions of extremist Hindu groups. “Our fight against terrorism is weakened after these acquittals,” says Owaisi.
With the collapse of the prosecution, after more than a decade, we appear to be no closer to the mystery of who bombed the Mecca Masjid. Devendra Gupta, cleared alongside Aseemanand of involvement in the bombings, was sentenced to life in prison for planning the Ajmer dargah blast. Were the blasts, just five months apart, connected? Why are dozens of witnesses turning hostile? Does the NIA have to start its probe from scratch? Those who lost loved ones in Hyderabad on May 18, 2007, must feel terribly disillusioned, let down by the country’s principal investigating authorities.