2005 Varanasi Blast: Seven years after cops filed closure report, ATS begins fresh probe

A senior official in ATS confirmed that they have started further investigation into the Dashashwamedha Ghat blast after filing an application in the court.

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The ATS reportedly has begun the investigation on the basis of revelation made by alleged IM operative Saif, who was arrested after Batla encounter in Delhi in September, 2008 and IM co-founder Mohammad Ahmed Siddibapa alias Yasin Bhatkal who was arrested in Bihar in 2013. Both had revealed that the blast at Dashashwamedha Ghat in Varansi was planned by their associates Sadiq Shaikh and Dr Shahnawaj (Saif’s brother), both hailing from Azamgarh. Sadiq was arrested in September, 2008 in Mumbai while Shahnawaj is still on the run.

According to interrogation reports, Yasin had revealed that Sadiq had sent 18 kg plastic explosives PETN from Mumbai through a carrier to Azamgarh. The explosive was kept at another IM operative Arif Badr’s shop in Sarai Meer area in Azamgarh. A day after explosives arrived, Sadiq too arrived in Sarai Meer and he and Atif Amin reportedly assembled the bomb. Bhatkal further revealed that Atif and Shahnawaj had planted the bombs.

At around 4:00 pm, on February 23, 2005 bomb exploded at a tea stall on the Dashashwamedha Ghat killing seven persons and injuring nine.

Initially, the police had claimed that a LPG cylinder had burst, but forensic reports confirmed that the blast was caused by high-grade explosives. It also came to light that ammonium nitrate was used with nails and explosion was not triggered by a timer device.

Since no facts leading to the accused could emerge during the investigation, the Varanasi police filed a closure report in May, 2008 in the court. The decision, however, had not gone well with the relatives of the blast victims who had alleged that the police never took the case seriously. The victims’ kin alleged that the police never pursued the vital leads which the Delhi police got after busting the IM module in 2008.