Macca Masjid bomb blast: No decision on appealing against ruling

Hyderabad: Five persons, including Naba Kumar Sarkar alias Swami Aseemanand, who were accused in the Macca Masjid bomb blast here in 2007, were acquitted by the Special Court of the National Investigation Agency on Monday due to lack of any clinching evidence against them.

Of the remaining accused, Sunil Joshi of Madhya Pradesh, a former Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh pracharak, was murdered when the case was under investigated, two other accused — former RSS pracharak Sandeep V. Dange and RSS activist and electrician Ramchandra Kalsangra also from Madhya Pradesh — are absconding. Investigation against two others — Tejram Parmar and Amith Chowhan — is still on.

The NIA examined a total of 226 witnesses during the trial and 411 documents were exhibited. 

Soon after the blast in May 2007, the Andhra Pradesh Police had taken up the investigation followed up on the Bangladesh-based terror outfit’s HuJI involvement based on intelligence inputs. This resulted in the police picking up more 100 youth for questioning which led to public outcry. Twenty-one of them were charged in the case.

A month later, the government handed over the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which claimed that Hindu terror group was behind the Mecca Masjid blast also also a few other blasts at Muslim religious places apart from the Samjhauta Express blast.

The case was subsequently handed over to the NIA in 2011 which made some arrests and filed a chargesheet in the case.

Sources in the NIA said that they are yet to decide on appealing in the higher court and against the verdict.