A special court in Panchkula acquitted four accused in the Samjhauta train blast case that left 68 people dead in 2007. “The NIA Special Court has concluded that the investigating agency has failed to prove the conspiracy charge and ruled that accused deserve a benefit of doubt,” NIA Counsel RK Handa said.
NIA, which was ordered to take over the probe in the case in 2010, had accused that the alleged perpetrators were upset with the terror attacks on Hindu places of worship and conspired to kill (mostly) Pakistani civilians in an act of revenge.
Among the acquitted is Swami Aseemanand (born as Naba Kumar Sarkar) was also charged in bombing of Ajmer sharif dargah blast, Mecca Masjid blasts and 2006 Malegaon blasts.
Of the 68 Citizens killed in the blast, 43 were Pakistani nationals while rest were Indians.
The NIA in its chargesheet had named eight persons as accused. Amongst them today the court released Swami Aseemanand, Lokesh Sharma, Kamal Chauhan and Rajinder Chaudhary. Sunil Joshi, the alleged mastermind of the attack, was killed in December 2007.
