Samjhauta blast case: Court declares two accused as offenders

A special court hearing the Samjhauta blast case today declared two of the accused as proclaimed offenders and posted for July 8 the next hearing in the case.

During the in-camera hearing of the case, the court declared Ram Chandra Kalsangra and Sandeep Dange as proclaimed offenders in the case after the NIA said that it had failed to locate them, defence counsel M Rathi said.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had on June 20 charged Swami Aseemanand and four others with triggering explosions in the cross-border Samjhauta Express in 2007 that left 68 people dead and 12 injured.

In the charge sheet filed before the vacation court of additional district and sessions judge Kanchan Mahi, the NIA had accused Aseemanand, Sunil Joshi (now dead), Lokesh Sharma, Sandeep Dange and Ramchandra Kalasangra alias Ramji of hatching a criminal conspiracy which resulted in bomb blasts in the tain.

Aseemanand and Sharma are already in judicial custody in Ambala jail. Both of them were present in the court today but they refused to talk to the media.

Apart from Ajmer Dargah blast, which claimed three lives and left 15 others injured, Aseemanand and Lokesh Kumar Sharma are accused in several other blast cases across the country, including those at Hyderabad's Mecca Masjid and Malegaon.