Best Bakery accused arrested in Ajmer Dargah blast case

An accused of the Best Bakery riot case was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday for allegedly planting one of the two improvised explosive devices in the Dargah Ajmer Sharif blast on October 11, 2007.

An accused of the Best Bakery riot case was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday for allegedly planting one of the two improvised explosive devices in the Dargah Ajmer Sharif blast on October 11, 2007.

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The blast had killed 3 people and left more than a dozen injured. Mehul alias Mafat Lal was arrested from Vadodara at 2.30pm on Thursday. He is the third accused who has been arrested in the Ajmer Sharif case who was also charged in the Gujarat riots cases.

Before Mehul, investigators arrested Harshad Solanki alias Raj, also an accused in the Best Bakery case, and Bhavesh Patel, accused of throwing pipe bombs on a mosque in Bharuch after the Godhra incident.

"Two IEDs were planted in the Dargah. One IED was allegedly kept by Mehul and second one was planted by another accused Sunny who is still on the run," said a senior investigator on the condition of anonymity.

According to sources, Mehul along with three others - Harshad Solanki, Jayanti Gohil and Mohan alias Ramesh Gohil - didn't submit before the court at the time of re-trial in the Best Bakery case. They had been earlier acquitted by a trial court hearing the case.

But when it was charged that the accused tried to influence the trial, a re-trial was ordered by the Supreme Court in the case.

At the time of re-trial Mehul, Solanki, Jayanti and Mohan didn't submit before the court. They ran away and took shelter with Sunil Joshi, the leader of the group of Hindu extremists alleged to have targeted Malegaon, Samjhauta train, Hyderabad's Mecca Masjid and Dargah Ajmer Sharif with bomb blasts. All four disappeared after mysterious murder of Sunil Joshi in December 2007.