A court in Hyderabad on Wednesday asked the CBI to state reasons for seeking custody of “Swami Asimanand”, an accused in the 2007 Mecca Masjid bomb blast case, after the defence opposed its plea on the ground that the agency had already questioned him and did not specify any reasons for his further interrogation.
Opposing the CBI’s application to further interrogate “Swami Asimanand”, his advocate J.B. Chinna Kesava Rao told the XIV Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate court that his client had already been interrogated for two days after being arrested by the CBI on November 19.
He further contended that the probe agency has not specified what sort of investigation it wants to carry out further. The CBI has also recovered all the material from the possession of “Swami Asimanand”, what more documents does “it want to get”, the defence counsel asked.
“The CBI has been telling that Asimanand was arrested for his role in the Mecca Masjid blast case, but there are no specific allegations,” Mr. Rao asserted, adding “his client was suffering from neurological problems” and sought for dismissing the CBI’s petition.
The prosecution, arguing for a 15-day police custody of “Swami Asimanand”, said the blast case was a sensitive issue and the role of the accused and the reasons seeking his custody cannot be made public and disclosed in the open court.
The magistrate, K. Sudhaker, who heard the case, however asked the CBI to furnish before it the reasons for seeking police custody for “Swami Asimanand”.
Judge Sudhaker then reserved for November 26 orders on the matter after CBI counsel P Vikram informed the court that they would file a case diary (CD) file before the court containing details on the status of CBI’s investigation of the case so far and also on the role and reason seeking police custody of “Swami Asimanand”.
“Swami Asimanand” alias Naba Kumar Sarkar was arrested by the CBI on November 19 from Haridwar in connection with the blast at the historic Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad on May 18, 2007, which left nine persons dead.
The probe agency, in its submission before the court, had last week claimed that the complicity of “Swami Asimanand” in the criminal conspiracy in the blast case at the Mecca Masjid came to light recently and added his name as an accused in the case diary.
