Journalism of Courage
The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday stayed the directions of a lower court which had allowed the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to re-examine the samples gathered after bomb blasts in Samjhauta Express on February 18,2007.
The stay came after Swami Aseemanand,one of the accused in the case,moved the High Court,contending that the NIA had asked for re-examination as an afterthought to create an evidence against him. He alleged the NIA forced him to confess by putting words into his mouth.
Acting on Aseemanands appeal,Justice S S Saron stayed the directions of the lower court and issued a notice to the NIA,asking it to respond to the petition.
Recently,the special court had allowed the NIA to re-examine the Samjhauta Express blast samples as the agency wanted to compare them with those from explosions triggered at other places such as Malegaon,Hyderabad and Ajmer.
Calling the lower courts order misconceived,Aseemanands counsel R S Rai submitted that it amounted to re-investigation of the case,which is not permissible under the CrPC provisions.
The comparison which the NIA planned to do with the material collected from other blast sites could have been done by now as the samples and expert reports were already with the NIA,Aseemanand alleged.
