The Rashtriya Swayam Sevak functionary Devendra Gupta, arrested for his alleged role in Ajmer dargah blast case, on Saturday told a Delhi court that CBI’s reply on leakage of Swami Aseemanand’s confessional statement to the media be rejected.
Mr. Aseemanand (59), prime accused in Hyderabad’s Mecca Masjid blast case, had in his recent confessional statement said he and several other Sangh activists had a direct role in Malegaon, Samjhauta Express, Ajmer and Mecca Masjid blasts.
The CBI, which was asked by the court to clarify the circumstances under which the statement of Mr. Aseemanand got leaked, had said none of its officials was involved and it was a journalist who published it.
“CBI’s reply in the case is incomplete and it is prayed that the reply filed by Ashok Tiwari, DIG CBI, be rejected,” Anupam S Sharma, counsel for Gupta, told Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sanjay Bansal.
“CBI was trying to hush up the matter and not holding a proper inquiry into the case. The cursory manner in which the inquiry has been conducted and the content of the report prima facie show that the investigating agency is not serious about going to the root of the issue and is over anxious only to put its defence and hush up the matter,” he said.
The agency, in its reply, had said Ashish Khaitan, a scribe, had published the confessional statement.
The RSS functionary, in an application, has sought a direction to the CBI Director to file a fresh report.
The court has put the matter for further hearing on March 30.
Earlier, the court had asked the CBI Director to file a complete report on the leakage.
The order was passed on a plea of Mr. Gupta seeking lodging of an FIR against CBI and ‘Tehelka’ magazine under various penal provisions for the “deliberate” leakage of Mr. Aseemanand’s confessional statement.
The confession was recorded in Delhi by a Metropolitan Magistrate on December 18 last year in an in-camera proceeding.
Mr. Gupta, against whom a chargesheet has been filed by Rajasthan’s Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS), is lodged in Central Jail, Ajmer, for his alleged role in blast in the premises of the dargah of Khawaja Moinuddin Chishti in 2007 that left three persons dead and 15 injured.
