Samjhauta case: Defence wants NIA to put ‘all facts’ on record
A special court adjourned the Samjhauta train blast case till November 2.
A special court here today adjourned the Samjhauta train blast case till November 2 after the defence plea that NIA should put “all facts” pertaining to the case on record.
“Arguments on framing of charges were to be taken up today,but the case was adjourned after the defence plea. In the next hearing,we have been asked to file our reply,” NIA Special Prosecutor R K Handa said later.
National Investigation Agency’s Special Judge Subhash Mehla adjourned the case.
Handa said right wing Hindu group member Aseemanand’s counsel submitted a plea before the court that NIA be directed to produce documents that claim to have revelations of 26/11 terror accused David Coleman Headley’s wife and that of Students Islamic Movement of India “showing Headley and SIMI’s hand in the cross-border train’s bombings.”
“The defence pleaded that NIA be directed to produce the documents of the US agency FBI with regards to Headley’s investigation and another report where SIMI is claimed to have confessed responsibility in the (train) bombings,” he said.
After the court proceedings,Aseemanand’s counsel said,”All these documents were necessary to be brought on record. We have sought these documents under the provisions of the Section 91 of the Criminal Procedure Code.”
As the proceedings in the case are held in-camera,Handa said outside the court,”We submitted that the defence was only adopting delaying tactics. Their averments are totally vague and hearsay. At the time of framing of charges,the accused has no right to summon any document.”
“We also submitted that this (Special) Court would not have jurisdiction to summon some of the records from the US,” he said.
On September 28,the date of last hearing in the case,the special court had allowed NIA,probing Samjhauta train blast case,to send the material evidence collected for examination to Hyderabad-based Central Forensic Sciences Laboratory.
The NIA had sought permission to allow CFSL experts to take material evidence of the Samjhauta Express case to Hyderabad facility for comparison with other samples collected in Malegaon,Hyderabad and Ajmer bomb blasts cases,in which the role of a right-wing activist is suspected.
After a four-year probe,the NIA had on June 20,charged Aseemanand,Sunil Joshi (now dead),Lokesh Sharma,Sandeep Dange and Ramchandra Kalasangra alias Ramji with triggering explosions in the cross-border Samjhauta Express that left 68 people dead,mostly Pakistanis.
In the chargesheet filed in June before the vacation court of additional district and sessions judge here,Kanchan Mahi,the NIA had accused the five of hatching a criminal conspiracy which resulted in bomb blasts in the train.
Aseemanand and Sharma are already in judicial custody in Ambala jail.
Apart from Ajmer Dargah blast,which claimed three lives and left 15 others injured,Aseemanand and Sharma are accused in several other blast cases across the country,including those at Hyderabad’s Mecca Masjid and Malegaon.
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