The court says Rahile Wakeel, the woman who made the curious prayer which brought a twist in the case, was not a cited as a witness
The special Panchkula court that dismissed the application of a Pakistani national seeking to depose as a witness in the Samjhauta Express blast case, had issued summons to 13 Pakistani witnesses in March 2017. This was noted in the dismissal orders announced on March 20, the day the four accused in the bombing were also acquitted by the NIA court. The court said, “Sincere efforts were made by the NIA to serve the summons upon the witnesses but no response has been received from them or the Pakistan government.”
The court also maintained that Rahile Wakeel, the woman who made the prayer bringing a curious twist to the case, was not a cited witness,
The court said that it had first issued summons on March 20, 2017, asking them to appear on July 4th, 5th, and 6th, 2017. The summons was sent to the Ministry of Home Affairs(MHA) through NIA on March 23, 2017, which the MHA forwarded to High Commission of India, Islamabad(Pakistan). However, these summons were returned to the NIA through the ministry mentioning the remarks of the Ministry of External Affairs(MEA), Islamabad that, “the enclosures may be returned to the sending authority in India with the observation to indicate the basis of their request and send the summons at least four months before the date of hearing to avoid any inconvenience.”
The court noted that none of the 13 witnesses appeared in response to this summons, and it again issued them for the second time on July 4, 2017, to appear on November 27th, 28th and 29th, 2017. “These were immediately sent to the MHA and the ministry had asked to indicate the basis of a request for further taking up the matter with Pakistan authorities. After receiving a reply from the investigative agency on August 17, 2017, the MHA forwarded these to the MEA on September 11 with a request to take up the case to ensure service of above summons through competent authority in Pakistan government,” the orders read. The court then mentions that neither any witness from Pakistan appeared in the court nor it received any information from the neighbouring country.
Summons were sent the third time on April 4, 2018, and the dates were fixed for August 3rd and 4th. Given the advance stage of trial, the court had also asked the NIA to expedite and ensure the service of summons. Since no one turned up this time too with no intimation of any kind, the NIA sent a reminder to the MEA and MHA on July 9. 2018 regarding status of service of summons. A week later, on July 17, NIA received information from MHA/MEA that the summons were formally forwarded to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs(Pakistan) and there was no response either from the witnesses or Pakistan government.
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 "Samjhauta Express blast case")
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