The order acquitting all four accused - Aseemanand, Lokesh Sharma, Kamal Chauhan and Rajinder Chaudhary was pronounced by the special court on Wednesday.
A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Panchkula on Wednesday acquitted all four accused in 2007 Samjhauta Express blast case.
The order acquitting all four accused - Naba Kumar Sarkar alias Swami Aseemanand, Lokesh Sharma, Kamal Chauhan and Rajinder Chaudhary was pronounced by NIA special judge Jagdeep Singh on Wednesday. The court on Monday had reserved its order on the case.
The case pertains to the death of 68 persons in an explosion in Samjhauta Express in Panipat district of Haryana on February 18, 2007, when it was on its way to Attari in Amritsar, the last station on the Indian side. Out of the deceased, 33 were male, 19 were female, 10 were male children, and 6 were female children. Most of the victims were Pakistanis citizens.
Before pronouncing the verdict, the judge dismissed the plea filed by a Pakistani woman for examining some eyewitnesses from her country.
The court ruled that the plea of the Pakistani woman was devoid of any merit, NIA counsel Rajan Malhotra said.
The blast had ripped apart two coaches of the cross-border train. "Two unexploded bombs were also recovered from the site," the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had said.
The Haryana police registered a case, but the probe was handed over to the National Investigation Agency in July 2010. The NIA filed a charge sheet in July 2011 against eight persons for their alleged roles in the terror attack.
Of the eight, Swami Aseemanand, Lokesh Sharma, Kamal Chauhan and Rajinder Chaudhary appeared before the court and faced trial.
Sunil Joshi, the alleged mastermind of the attack, was shot dead near his home in Madhya Pradesh's Dewas district in December 2007. The three other accused -- Ramchandra Kalsangra, Sandeep Dange and Amit -- could not be arrested and were declared proclaimed offenders.
Aseemanand was out on bail, while three others were in judicial custody. The NIA had charged the accused with murder and criminal conspiracy, and under the Explosive Substances Act and the Railways Act.
"This terrorist act was committed by using Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) along with the highly inflammable substances, which caused blasts and consequent fire in the compartments of the train no. 4001 UP Attari (Samjhauta) Express at Panipat, Haryana," the charge sheet read.
"The Samjhauta Express (Attari) train blast case of 18.02.2007 was a "dreadful terrorist act" in which two powerful bomb blasts were carried out by a group of people in pursuance of a criminal conspiracy with an intent to kill people and further to threaten the unity, integrity, security and sovereignty of India and to strike terror in the people of India and in a foreign country," the charge sheet said.
The charge sheet alleged that all the accused were agitated and perturbed over the attacks on Hindu temple sites and towns by the Islamic terrorist groups. In order to retaliate to such attacks, the accused persons conspired to target the Muslim population.
Accused Rajendra Chaudhary conspired, planned, executed the attack along with other suspects. They planted bombs in the Samjhauta Express train along with other co-accused persons on February 18.
The investigation had claimed that the blasts which took place in Samjhauta Express, Mecca Masjid, Ajmer Sharif were carried out by the accused persons in pursuance to a criminal conspiracy.
(With agencies)
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