The National Investigation Agency (NIA) special court in Jaipur on Saturday deferred till March 8 its judgment in the 2007 Ajmer dargah blast case. It said the case was “voluminous” and more time was required for studying the documents submitted by the prosecution and the defence.
The explosion in the 13th Century dargah of Sufi mystic Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti on October 11, 2007, during Ramzan, left three persons dead and 17 injured.
The shrine was packed to capacity, with about 5,000 devotees, when the blast occurred at the time of ‘iftaar’ (breaking of fast).
NIA special judge Dinesh Gupta adjourned the case till March 8 after the nine accused were produced in the court.
The court is analysing the testimony of 149 witnesses and the contents of 451 documents submitted to it. Twenty-six witnesses turned hostile during cross-examination.
After the court order, eight of the nine accused were taken back to the Jaipur Central Jail.
One accused Lokesh Sharma was brought from Ambala in Haryana, while Chandrashekhare Leve is on bail.
The case was transferred in 2011 from the Rajasthan Anti-Terrorism Squad to the NIA, which filed three supplementary charge sheets in the court. The case moved fast-track after the change of government at the Centre in 2014. Besides Lokesh and Chandrashekhar, other accused in the case are Swami Aseemanand, Bhavesh Patel, Harshad Solanki, Devendra Kumar, Mehul Kumar, Mukesh Vasani and Bharat Bhai. Three other accused are absconding, while one of the accused, Sunil Joshi, was murdered in December 2007.
Swami Aseemanand’s confession in the case before a metropolitan magistrate at Tis Hazari courts in Delhi made headlines in December 2010. He had stated that he and other activists were involved in bombings at various places of worship across the country for taking revenge against the terror acts of Muslims.