Samjhauta Blast Case: Sibal, Owaisi Attack Assemanand’s Acquittal
On 20 March, special NIA court acquitted all four accused in the Samjhauta blast case.
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A day after a special court acquitted Swami Aseemanand and three others in the Samjhauta Express blast case, senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Thursday, 21 March, sarcastically said with a verdict that “no one knows” who killed 68 people, it must be a “proud day” for the criminal justice system.
Twelve years after a blast on the Samjhauta Express killed 68 people, mostly Pakistanis, a special court in Panchkula acquitted Swami Aseemanand and three others in the case.
All the four accused, Naba Kumar Sarkar alias Swami Aseemanand, Lokesh Sharma, Kamal Chauhan and Rajinder Chaudhary have been acquitted by the court, NIA counsel Rajan Malhotra had said.
Reacting to the development, Sibal tweeted: “2007: Samjhauta Express Bomb Blast, 68 killed. NIA charged 8 accused. Verdict : No one knows who killed the 68 victims. Must be a proud day for our criminal justice system!”
AIMIM President Asaddudin Owaisi also reacted on the verdict on Thursday. Attacking the prime minister, he said the government should appeal against Swami Aseemanand's acquittal in the Samjhauta blast case if Prime Minister Narendra Modi was really the "chowkidar" of the country, news agency PTI reported.
‘Truth is Unshakeable’
Minister of State for Housing & Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri, meanwhile, said that the verdict proves that the ‘saffron terror' narrative was yet another conspiracy by the UPA.
Senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy also echoed Puri’s views:
The blast on the India-Pakistan train took place near Panipat in Haryana on 18 February 2007, when it was on its way to Attari in Amritsar, the last station on the Indian side.
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