Samjhauta blasts case: Key witness turns hostile

CHANDIGARH: In a setback to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) that is probing the Samjhauta Express blasts, Neena Singh, a close aide of Sadhvi Pragya Singh and a prosecution witness, on Friday turned hostile during her evidence in Panchkula's NIA court. RP Singh was another key witness of the case who deposed before the court.
The NIA court has fixed July 31 as the next date of hearing.
Public prosecutor R K Handa confirmed to newspersons that Neena did not support her previous statements.In her statement before NIA during investigations, Neera had confirmed her association with Pragya and the latter's links to the accused arrested by the NIA in the Samjhauta blasts case. She had stated that Pragya was behind the murder of Sunil Joshi, one of the accused in the case.
While appearing before the NIA court presided by special judge R K Sondhi, Neera denied any association with Pragya. She also denied Pragya's involvement in Joshi's murder.
The second witness RP Singh, in his statement to NIA earlier, had said in 2008 he had seen Aseemanand giving a hate speech during a programme held at Bhopal.
While deposing before the court on Friday, Singh confirmed that he had gone to attend the programme, but refused to recognize Aseemanand, saying the person he saw delivering the hate speech was much taller than him.