Samjhauta blasts: NIA completes final arguments

CHANDIGARH: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday completed the

final arguments

in

Samjhauta blasts case

.

Defence counsel Mukesh Garg said that after completion of NIA’s final arguments, they have started their arguments. Their final arguments will continue on February 14, when the case will come up for hearing again, he added.

The blasts on Samjhauta Express train had taken place on February 18, 2007, killing 68 people, mostly Pakistanis. The train was targeted as Pakistani Muslims used to travel by it, as per the NIA charge sheet. The NIA on June 20, 2011, had filed the charge sheet against Swami Aseemanand and four others in the Panchkula NIA court. In the charge sheet filed before the special NIA court in Panchkula, the agency had accused Aseemanand, Lokesh Sharma, Sunil Joshi (now dead), Sandeep Dange and Ramchandra Kalasangra of hatching a criminal conspiracy, which resulted in the blasts in the cross-border train near Dewana railway station in Panipat district in February 2007.

In this case, the court had even directed 13 Pakistanis to record their statements, but till date they did not turn up. These Pakistanis are those who were either travelling on the train on that fateful day or were next of the kin who died in the blasts.


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