Samjhauta Express Blast: NIA Court acquits all accused including Swami Aseemanand

The Special NIA Court of Panchkula today acquitted all the four accused including Swami Aseemanand in the 2007 Samjhauta Express Blast case. As per reports, the Court also dismissed the application for examination of Pakistani eyewitnesses in the case..The judgment was delivered after the NIA Court had earlier deferred the pronouncement of the judgment on March 14. This was on account of a fresh application filed by a Pakistani resident Rahila Wakil through Advocate Momin Malik seeking permission for deposition of Pakistani witnesses. The application was dismissed today by the Special NIA Judge Jagdeep Singh..The Court also acquitted the four accused in the case – Swami Aseemanand along with three others, Kamal Chauhan, Rajinder Chaudhary, and Lokesh Sharma..The case relates to the IED blast that was carried out in Samjhauta Express, which connects India’s New Delhi to Pakistan’s Lahore, in February 2007. The blast took place in Panipat and had led to the killing of over 65 people..There were a total of eight accused in the case of which three were declared proclaimed offenders and one was killed in December of 2007. Thus, only four accused persons were tried by the NIA Court and acquitted today..Over 250 witnesses were examined. Many witnesses had turned hostile during the trial while the Pakistani witnesses failed to appear before the Court despite issuance of summons through the Ministry of External Affairs..The trial which began in 2013 and lasted for five years. It was heard by various Judges and was eventually decided by Special Judge Jagdeep Singh who also delivered the judgment in the cases against Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Insaan. .This is the third acquittal for Swami Aseemanand who was earlier freed of charges in the Ajmer Dargah blast and Hyderabad’s Mecca Masjid blast..Image from here