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.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Excise policy: SC questions ED over delay in probe, asks for case files before Kejriwal's arrest
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Tuesday questioned the Enforcement Directorate (ED) over the "delay" in its probe into the excise policy-linked money laundering case involving Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, and asked the agency to produce case files before the arrest of the AAP leader.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta also asked the ED to produce case files before and after the arrest of Delhi's former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, who is also an accused in the case.
The bench is hearing arguments on Kejriwal's plea challenging his arrest by the ED in the case.
It questioned the ED on the time taken to probe the case and noted that the agency has taken two years to unearth something
The bench also asked why relevant direct questions were not put to witnesses and accused in the case.
Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, appearing for the ED, said initially Kejriwal was not the focus of the investigation in the case and his role became clear at later stage.
He said Kejriwal had stayed in a seven-star hotel during the 2022 Goa Assembly polls and part of the bills were allegedly paid by the Delhi government's general administration department.
The bench was given a note by Raju in which he contradicted the submission of Kejriwal that the statements of approvers were suppressed by the probe agency.
The arguments in the matter are underway.
Kejriwal was arrested on March 21 and is currently lodged in Tihar Jail under judicial custody.
The top court had issued a notice to the ED on April 15 and sought its response to Kejriwal's plea against his arrest.
On April 9, the Delhi High Court had upheld Kejriwal's arrest, saying there was no illegality and the ED was left with "little option" after he skipped repeated summonses and refused to join the investigation.
The case relates to alleged corruption and money laundering in the formulation and execution of the Delhi government's now-scrapped excise policy for 2021-22.
