Court frees Aseemanand

HYDERABAD: A special antiterror court on Monday acquitted Hindutva preacher Swami Aseemanand and four others in the 2007 Mecca Masjid blast case, holding that the prosecution failed to prove “even a single allegation” against them, lawyers said. A powerful blast, triggered by remote control, had ripped through the over four centuriesold mosque here during an assembly of devotees on May 18, 2007 when they had gathered for Friday prayers, killing nine people and wounding 58.

“Prosecution (NIA) could not prove even a single allegation against any of the accused and all of them stand acquitted,” J P Sharma, the counsel for Assemanand, told reporters quoting special judge for NIA cases K Ravinder Reddy who delivered the verdict amid tight security. Media was barred entry in the courtroom during the pronouncement of the judgement in the high-profile case, dubbed as one of “Hindu terror”, a term that riled the BJP and saffron organisations no end.

Aseemanand was acquitted last year in the 2007 Ajmer Dargah terror attack. He is an accused in the 2007 Samjhauta blasts case. Apart from him, those acquitted are — Devendra Gupta, Lokesh Sharma, Bharat Mohanlal Rateshwar

alias Bharat Bhai and Rajendra Chowdhary. Though there were 10 accused in the case, only these five were tried. Two other accused — Sandeep V Dange and Ramchandra Kalsangra — were absconding, while Sunil Joshi was murdered. Investigation is continuing against two others.

The bomb had exploded in an area of the mosque where devotees performed ablutions. Two more Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDS) were later found and defused by the police. The incident had triggered violent protests and riots, prompting police action in which five more people were killed.

Buoyed by the verdict, the BJP claimed that it had “exposed” the

Congress’ “appeasement politics”, while the latter raised questions about the functioning of the NIA. BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra alleged that the Congress has long “defamed” Hindus for votes and demanded that party president Rahul Gandhi and his predecessor Sonia Gandhi apologise for using terms like “saffron terror” and “Hindu terror”.

Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said, “It (acquittal) is happening in each case since the government was formed four years ago...people are losing faith in the agencies.” AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi claimed that the NIA did not properly pursue the case, leading to the acquittal of the accused.

NEW DELHI: Naba Kumar Sarkar, Jatin Chatterjee, Omkarnath. What's in a name?

Swami Aseemanand, acquitted today in the 2007 Mecca Masjid blast case, is a man of several names but committed to one shade of saffron.

Born Naba Kumar Sarkar in Kamaarpukar village in West Bengal's Hooghly district, Swami Aseemanand, as he came to be popularly known, stepped into the national spotlight in 2010 when he was arrested by the CBI for his alleged role in the blast in Hyderabad's Mecca Masjid on May 18, 2007.

Nine people were killed and 58 wounded when a powerful explosion ripped through the mosque complex during Friday prayers.

The 66-year-old saffronclad self confessed monk was subsequently named as an accused in two other terror incidents the same year -the October 11, 2007 blast in Ajmer's famed Khwaja Chishti shrine in which three people were killed and the bombing of the Samjhauta Express on the intervening night of February 17-18, 2007, in which 68 people lost their lives.

Monday's acquittal, on grounds of lack of evidence, is his second. In March last year, he was absolved by a special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in the Ajmer blast case. As the bespectacled, greyhaired Aseemanand walked free today, the only cloud in his horizon is the pending Samjhauta trial, which shows little sign of resuming with witnesses from Pakistan refusing to come to India to testify, an official said. The story of the man who grew out of his humble beginnings began somewhere in the 1970s. He had completed his graduation in science in in 1971, but his interests lay elsewhere as well and he became involved with rightwing groups from school, going on to work full time with the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram in Purulia and Bankura districts in the state.

It was at the Ashram that Naba Kumar Sarkar was christened Swami Aseemanand in 1981, investigators said.

The fiery speaker soon became known for his antiminority speeches and his relentless campaign against Christian missionaries, getting invited to speak in various places across the country.

In the late 1990s, he settled down in Gujarat's Dangs district where he started a tribal welfare organisation called Shabri Dham, a Hindu rightwing organisation.

According to a confessional statement given to a judge in 2010, Aseemanand said he was famous for his anti-minority statements. In 2002, things changed after the killing of 30 devotees at the Akshardham temple in Gandhinagar by terrorist suicide bombers and he wanted to avenge the deaths, he said.

He spoke of his association with others accused in terrorrelated cases but retracted the statement later. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) did not press perjury charges against him. The rightwing preacher, investigating officials said, had also given a graphic account of his involvement in two other cases of terrorism in Maharashtra's Malegaon town -- on September 8, 2006, when 37 people were killed and on September 29, 2008, when six people were killed.