2 more witnesses turn hostile

SAMJHAUTA BLAST CASE

TWO MORE witnesses in the 2007 Samjhauta Express train bomb blasts case turned hostile on Friday before the Panchkula Special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court. They are Krishna from Indore and Narayan Das from Ayodhya.

The blasts had occurred near Dewana railway station in Panipat district of Haryana, killing 68 people, mostly from Pakistan, and injuring 12 on the intervening night of February 18 and 19, 2007. The train was on its way from Delhi to Lahore in Pakistan.

NIA counsel Rajan Malhotra said both the witnesses were declared hostile as they did not support the prosecution’s evidence. He said Narayan Das denied that he had ever given a statement to NIA earlier that in 2010 during his stay at Sita Ram Bhagat Mal Ashram in Ayodhya, two accused in the case, Rajender Chaudhry and Dhan Singh, had visited the Ashram. However, Krishan refuted his earlier statement given to the NIA wherein he had said that in 2006-07 when accused Amit Chauhan used to live in Sarvasampan Nagar in Indore, another accused Ramji (Ramchandra Kalsangra) used to come and meet him regularly. Both the accused are on the run till date.

Another witness to be examined was Rajesh Kumar Verma from Madhya Pradesh, who stood by his earlier statement. Till date, the statements of 178 witnesses out of a total of 299 have been recorded by the NIA court and over 25 witnesses have turned hostile.

Key accused in the case Kamal Chauhan, Lokesh Sharma and Rajender Chaudhry were also produced by police in NIA court Friday. Special NIA judge Gulab Singh posted the case for November 22, when more witnesses in the case will be examined.