Samjhauta blast: Aseemanand in court, two declared offenders
July 1st, 2011 - 2:43 pm ICT by IANSPanchkula (Haryana) July 1 (IANS) A special National Investigating Agency (NIA) court Friday declared Sandeep Dange and Ramchandra Kalasangra proclaimed offenders (POs) in the 2007 Samjhauta Express blast case. Radical Hindu activist Swami Aseemanand was also produced in court for the first time.
With Aseemanand, another accused Lokesh Sharma was also produced in the court of NIA special judge Subhash Mehla.
NIA had on June 20 filed a chargesheet against Aseemanand and four others - while Sharma has already been arrested, Dange and Kalasangra are absconding and the fourth, Sunil Joshi, is dead.
The next date of hearing is July 18.
“After the filing of chargesheet, Aseemanand was produced in the court for the first time. Besides, NIA special court has declared Sandeep Dange and Ramchandra Kalasangra as POs,” Manveer Singh Rathi, Aseemanand’s lawyer, told IANS here.
According to the chargesheet, Aseemanand was the mastermind behind the terror attack and had instigated others to carry out the terrorist act.
Aseemanand had earlier told the court that he had no role in the Samjhauta Express bombing in which the victims were mainly Pakistanis. He accused the NIA of torturing him mentally and physically to extract the statement from him.
Aseemanand, a member of the rightwing Hindu group Abhinav Bharat, was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Nov 19 last year from Haridwar in Uttarakhand for his alleged role in the 2007 Mecca Masjid blast in Hyderabad in which 14 people were killed.
The NIA had questioned Aseemanand about his role in the Samjhauta Express blasts Feb 18, 2007, at Diwana village near the industrial town of Panipat, 160 km from here.
The bombing took place in two coaches of the Samjhauta Express, a peace train between India and Pakistan.
The train was going from Delhi to Attari, the last station on the Indian side. The passengers were to board the train to Lahore in Pakistan the next day.
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- Samjhauta blast: Aseemanand sent to judicial custody till Jan. 27 - Jan 13, 2011
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- Samjhauta train blasts: Hindu leader sent to police custody - Dec 23, 2010
- Samjhauta blast: Swami Aseemanand produced before Panchkula court - Jan 13, 2011
- Samjhauta blasts: Hindu leader sent to police custody till Jan 3 - Dec 24, 2010
- Digvijay Singh accuses MP Govt. of helping Samjhauta blast accused - Jan 17, 2011
- Swami Aseemanand to be quizzed over Samjhauta train blast - Dec 21, 2010
- Judicial custody of Samjhauta blast accused Aseemanand extended till May 2 - Apr 30, 2011
Tags: abhinav, absconding, central bureau of investigation, dange, haridwar, hindu group, india and pakistan, investigating agency, lokesh, mecca masjid blast, peace train, proclaimed offenders, ramchandra, rathi, rightwing, samjhauta express, special judge, sunil joshi, terror attack, uttarakhand