Announcing verdict, NIA acquits Aseemanand, 4 others accused in Samjhauta train blast

New Delhi, March 20: Announcing the much awaited verdict on the India-Pakistan peace train Samjhauta Express train blast in 2007, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Wednesday acquitted Swami Aseemanand and three others in the case that left 68 people, mostly Pakistanis, dead in 2007.

 

The verdict came after NIA special judge Jagdeep Singh dismissed the plea filed by a Pakistani woman for examining eyewitnesses from her country, saying it was “devoid of any merit”. NIA counsel Rajan Malhotra said, “All the four accused, Naba Kumar Sarkar alias Swami Aseemanand, Lokesh Sharma, Kamal Chauhan and Rajinder Chaudhary have been acquitted by the court”.

The blast in Samjhauta Express took place near Panipat in Haryana on February 18, 2007, when the train was on its way to Attari in Amritsar, the last railway station on the Indian side. 68 people were killed in the ensuing fire and dozens more were injured including Pakistani nationals in the blast caused in two coaches of the train near Panipat in Haryana on the night of February 18, 2007. The victims also included some Indian civilians and three railway policemen.

NIA investigators found subsequent evidence of suitcases with explosives and flammable material, including three undetonated bombs. The investigation conducted by the NIA over a period of almost one year established that the entire conspiracy was hatched between 2005 and 2007 by Aseemanand, Joshi and their associates like Ramji, Sandeep Dange, Lokesh Sharma and others at different places including Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.

The Samjhauta Express, also called Attari Express, is a bi-weekly train that runs on Wednesdays and Sundays - between Delhi and Attari in India and Lahore in Pakistan.