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NEW DELHI – An anti-terror court, trying the 2007 Samjhauta Express bombingcase here, Wednesday dismissed a Pakistani woman’s plea to examine blasteyewitnesses from her country, terming the prayer as “devoid of any merit.””The court dismissed the Pakistani woman’s application. It ruled the pleawas devoid of any merit, said counsel Rajan Malhotra for NationalInvestigation Agency.
Special NIA Judge Jagdeep Singh had Monday reserved his order on thewoman’s application for March 20 after hearing arguments by counsel for thewomen and the NIA.
Pakistani woman Rahila Wakeel, the daughter of a blast victim, MuhammadWakeel of Dhingrawali village in Hafizabad district of Pakistan had movedthe court on March 11 seeking examination of the blast eyewitnesses fromher country.
She had contended that her co-nationals either did not receive propersummonses from the court or were denied visas by authorities to appearbefore it.
The NIA, which is probing the case, argued that summonses were sent throughproper channels on three occasions, but they were not responded to.
The NIA also said Rahila Wakeel “is not a sighted witness” in the case. Theapplication on behalf of Wakeel had been filed by her counsel Momin Malikon March 11, the day the court was scheduled to pronounce its verdict inthe case in which Swami Aseemanand is also one of the accused.
Special Judge Singh had asked petitioner’s counsel why the plea had beenmade at the fag end of the trial, saying several chances were given to all13 Pakistani witnesses to record their statements before the court.Wakeel’scounsel Malik, however, had reiterated his client’s stand.
The court had then listed the application for hearing on March 14.
The matter, however, had to be deferred to March 18 that due to a strike bylocal lawyers.
The woman, in her application, had pleaded that witnesses from Pakistan donot have any knowledge about the ongoing stage of the trial as “no propersummons were served to them”.
She had said all eyewitnesses in the case from her country were ready toappear before the court for their depositions and they should be examinedin the interest of justice.
The blast in Samjhauta Express occurred near Panipat in Haryana on February18, 2007, when the train was on its way to Attari in Amritsar, the lastrailway station on the Indian side.
The blast had ripped apart two coaches of the cross-border train, killing68, mostly Pakistani nationals.
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Haryana police registered a case, but the probe was handed over to the NIAin July 2010.
After its probe, the NIA filed a charge sheet in the case in June 2011against eight persons for their alleged roles in the terror attack.
Of the eight persons, Naba Kumar Sarkar alias Swami Aseemanand, LokeshSharma, Kamal Chauhan and Rajinder Chaudhary appeared before the court andfaced trial.
The alleged mastermind of the attack, Sunil Joshi, was shot dead near hishome in Madhya Pradesh’s Dewas district in December 2007, while three otheraccused — Ramchandra Kalsangra, Sandeep Dange and Amit could never beapprehended and were declared proclaimed offenders.
Aseemanand is out on bail, while three others are still in judicial custody.
NIA had charged the accused with murder and criminal conspiracy, besidesother relevant provisions of the Explosive Substances Act and the RailwaysAct.
In its probe, the NIA had concluded that the accused were upset with theterror attacks on Hindu temples — Akshardham (Gujarat), Raghunath Mandir(Jammu) and Sankat Mochan Mandir (Varanasi).
They had conspired together to trigger the blast in the Pakistan-boundtrain, largely carrying nationals of the neighbouring country, to avengethe spate of terror attacks in various temples of the country, it contended.
The accused had conspired and propounded a theory of “bomb ka badla bomb”,the NIA had said in its charge sheet.
As per the NIA probe, the accused were given training at Madhya Pradesh andFaridabad in Haryana for making bombs and using pistols.
The NIA charge sheet dubbed Sunil Joshi as the mastermind of the blastedplot with the active help of the other accused, including Aseemanand.
