The ruling on Wednesday cited the lack of evidence for the acquittal of Swami Aseemanand, Kamal Chauhan, Rajinder Chaudhary and Lokesh Sharma who were charged by the NIA. The identities of the remaining 15 could not be established. The victims in the February 2007 blast at t he Samjhauta Express train included 43 Pakistani citizens and 10 Indians. These Pakistani nationals were those who were either travelling on the train on that fateful day or are next of kin who died in the blasts.A special court in India has acquitted four men accused of bombing a train linking India and Pakistan 12 years ago, in an attack that killed 68 people. In this case, the court had directed 13 Pakistan nationals to record their statements, but they did not turn up. However, the accused had pleaded they were falsely implicated in the case and their ‘confessional statements’ had been taken by the investigation agencies under duress by resorting to coercive methods. The NIA had submitted that the accused had attacked the train to take revenge against the terror attacks on Hindu temples - Akshardham (Gujarat), Raghunath Mandir (Jammu) and Sankat Mochan Mandir (Varanasi). Later, supplementary charge sheet was also filed against the remaining accused. In the charge sheet, the agency had accused Aseemanand, Lokesh Sharma, Sunil Joshi (now dead), Sandeep Dange and Ramchandra Kalasangra alias Ramji, of murder and criminal conspiracy, under the Explosive Substances Act and Railways Act and others. The NIA had filed the charge sheet, running into 1,500 pages against Aseemanand and four others in the Panchkula NIA court on June 20, 2011. Aseemanand’s counsel Mukesh Garg said the NIA court’s verdict had proved that his client and others had no links with these blasts. However, he did not comment on his acquittal and left the premises in a private vehicle. After the verdict, Aseemanand, who was out on bail, exited the court room and thanked people and media who were outside court complex with folded hands. Similarly, in March 2017, Aseemanand was acquitted in Ajmer Dargah blasts case. On April 16, 2018, he was acquitted by special NIA court in Hyderabad in the 2007 Mecca Masjid blast case. There were total three cases against Aseemanand, including 2007 Mecca Masjid blast, Ajmer Dargah blasts and Samjhauta blasts. Aseemanand and Kamal Chauhan now have no cases pending against them, but Lokesh Sharma and Rajender Chaudhary will remain in judicial custody in connection with the 2006 Malegaon blasts case. Another accused Sunil Joshi, allegedly the mastermind of the case, was shot dead at Dewas in Madhya Pradesh on December 29, 2007. Of the total eight accused in the case, Sandeep Dange, Ramchandra Kalsangra and Amit Chauhan are absconding. When the special NIA judge pronounced the verdict, Aseemanand and three others were calm, revealed sources. The court acquitted the former RSS activist Aseemanand, Lokesh Sharma, Kamal Chauhan and Rajender Chaudhary in the case. We will examine the copy of the judgment and any decision on appeal will be taken after that,” NIA prosecutor R K Handa added. However, due to delay some of the witnesses turned hostile and we could not link the charges. “The NIA had received the investigation of the case almost three years after the incident but still after several difficulties in investigations, the agency had unearthed the case. The NIA will examine the court’s orders and accordingly decide on the next course of action. Sixty-eight people, mostly Pakistanis, on board the Samjhauta Express were killed when bombs set off in two bogies of the train going from Delhi to Attari, the last station on the Indian side, on February 18, 2007, at Diwana village, near Panipat in Haryana.
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