A year after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) requested U.S. authorities for information on a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) link to the 2007 Samjhauta train blast, the agency said it was no longer pursuing the aspect. In 2016, NIA DG Sharad Kumar had raised the issue of LeT financier Arif Qasmani with the U.S. under the MLAT.
A 2009 U.S. charge sheet and 2010 UN citation accused Mr. Qasmani of funding both the Samjhauta blast as well as the 2006 Mumbai train bombings.
Mr Kumar had raised the issue of Mr. Qasmani under the MLAT or Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) among other pending issues.
Aseemanand accused
Though the U.S. named Mr. Qasmani, the NIA had filed a charge sheet in 2010 in the Samjhauta blast case against eight accused persons,including Aseemanand alias Naba Kumar Sarkar. Aseemanand was granted bail on August 28, 2014 by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in the said case and the NIA decided not to challenge his bail. He continued to be in prison as he was also an accused in the Hyderabad Mecca Masjid and Ajmer Dargah blasts in 2007.
Earlier this month, he was acquitted in the Ajmer Dargah blast case and granted bail in the Mecca Masjid case last week. The NIA is yet to decide whether it would challenge the acquittal and bail.
“We are yet to get a response from the U.S. authorities but we are unlikely to pursue it any further. It was follow up action on pending MLAT requests,” said a senior NIA official.
The ruling BJP government had accused the then UPA government under the Congress of politicising the case and falsely coining the term “saffron terror.” Congress, in turn, has accused the BJP of going soft on terror cases where members of the RSS are named as accused.
India sent its first request about Mr. Qasmani, who was designated a global terrorist by the UN 1267 Sanctions Committee, in 2011.
According to a charge sheet filed by the NIA, “Aseemanand, with an intention to give a befitting reply to the perceived persecution by Hindus by the members of Muslim community propounded a ‘bomb ka badla (revenge) bomb’ theory.”
The case is at a trial stage at a court in Panchkula and around 30 witnesses have turned hostile so far. There are 299 witnesses in the case and 270 have already been examined. Recently, a special NIA court in Panchkula has sent summons to record statements of 24 witnesses from Pakistan.
The NIA also probed the role of Sadhvi Pragya Singh and Lt. Col Shrikant Purohit in the case but could not make any headway. While it said it had strong evidence against the Sadhvi, it could never get the custody of Lt. Col Purohit as he was in custody of Maharashtra ATS in the Malegaon blast case. Both were not made an accused.
