Samjhauta incident: Shadow of doubt on investigating agencies
It has been twelve years since 68 people died in Samjhauta express blast. National Investigation Agency has carried out a long inquiry and acquitted the main accused Swami Aseemanand. What does this mean? How did the 68 people die? Who has to answer this question?
Everybody knows Swami Aseemanand and three other accused have Sangh Parivar background. Aseemananda had even given a confession statement on this case. Now he has been acquitted. Prosecution has failed to prove the charges levelled against him, the court said. About 8 people were accused in this case and one among them was killed. Three have disappeared. Another four people have been acquitted. But the investigating agency has no answer as to who I responsible for the death of 68 people.
Most of the people who died in this are Pakistan citizens. Communal elements had been opposing this train that connected two countries and hence planted a bomb in this locomotive that stood as a symbol of peace, and love. The communal elements wouldn’t ever tolerate two countries existing in peace with each other. It’s very evident that communal elements in both countries are behind this massacre.
Swami Aseemananda, an RSS activist is not an ordinary man. He was accused in Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad and Ajmer Dargah blast cases too. He has been acquitted in those as well. Prosecution has said long ago that Aseemanand was the Hindutva extremist mastermind who avenged the 2002 Akshar Dham temple attack. Swami Aseemanand himself had given a long statement about saffron terror and retracted his words later. Haryana police had investigated the case and then it was handed over to NIA.
But after Modi assumed the PM’s chair in 2014, there have been criticisms about NIA’s handling of the case under NDA rule. Some people turned hostile and the prosecution failed to defend charges. The failure of prosecution is very evident in Samjhauta express case that was bound to derail the talks of peace between India and Pakistan. Looks like prosecution came under the influence of central government or political pressure. Whatever be the case, a transparent inquiry needs to be carried into the bomb explosion case that killed 68 persons and those responsible for this evil incident have to be brought to book. Else people will begin to doubt the diligence of investigating agencies.
Rational thinkers such as Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare and Dr M M Kalburgi cases have also not seen great progress in bringing the culprits to the book. Investigating agencies have been given earful in case of Pansare murder by Mumbai High Court. Since the then CM Siddaramaiah handed over the investigation of Gauri Lankesh’s murder to SIT, things have progressed well. Everywhere BJP is in power, there are charges that the party even protects those people who spread unrest in the name of religion.
More than 2000 people died in Gujarat massacre and the investigation of this incident is far from satisfactory. Even now a lot of accused are walking around scot-free. People lose faith on law and order when such things happen. Criminal, fascists and such elements have entered all levels of administration. They pose a challenge to constitutional duties. Hence all citizens need to chase them out of constitutional institutions.
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Ex-minister Ramanath Rai hits out at BJP leader Ashoka for ‘irresponsible’ comments on KC Venugopal
Mangaluru: Congress leader and former minister B Ramanath Rai slammed BJP leader R Ashoka for calling AICC General Secretary KC Venugopal an agent of the party high command, and asked if the general secretary and other office-bearers in the BJP were commission agents too.
Rai, who addressed a press meet at the Congress office in the city on Friday, expressed fury over the recent comments of the BJP leader that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was presenting himself in a shameless manner in public life. Ashoka, who is also Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly, had said that the Congress government had ‘broken every previous record on corruption-related controversies’.
“Ashoka has spoken with sheer ignorance and displays his lack of maturity, as he often does while facing the media. KC Venugopal has been working at organization of the party and it is unbecoming of Ashoka to criticize Venugopal as he did,” Rai told reporters.
“Being in a responsible position, how acceptable is it for Ashoka to pass disrespectful, random comments about another leader who also holds a responsible position? If KC Venugopal is indeed an agent of the party high command, what should we consider BJP leaders to be? Are they brokers?” he asked
Commenting on Ashoka’s allegations of corruption in the Congress government in Karnataka, Rai pointed out, “The KSRTC land was sold to private parties when he (Ashoka) was transport minister. We can find several such cases across the state, which need to be probed.”
The former minister, however, refused to comment on the incident that occurred at Mangaluru airport during CM Siddaramaiah’s visit to the city recently.
Former mayors Ashraf and Shashidhar Hegde, Congress activists Vishwas Kumar Das, Subhodaya Alva, Shabeer, Baby Kundar, Padmanabha, Nazeer Bajal and Prem were present.
