Court to hear complainant before deciding on NIA’s closure report on Sadhvi Pragya, Indresh

The NIA had on April 3 filed a closure report in the court, clearing Sadhvi Pragya Singh, senior RSS leader Indresh Kumar, and two others of all involvement in October 2007 blast that killed three and wounded 17.

A special court here said on Monday that it wants to hear the opinion of the complainant in the Ajmer dargah (shrine) blast case before deciding on the closure report filed by NIA.

The NIA had on April 3 filed a closure report in the court, clearing Sadhvi Pragya Singh, senior RSS leader Indresh Kumar, and two others of all involvement in October 2007 blast that killed three and wounded 17.(HT FILE PHOTO)

The agency had on April 3 filed a closure report in the court, clearing Sadhvi Pragya Singh, senior RSS leader Indresh Kumar, and two others of all involvement in October 2007 blast that killed three and wounded 17.

On Monday, the court said it wants to hear the complainant Syed Sarwar Chishty’s remarks on the report before deciding whether it will accept it or not.

Pragya Singh was accused of being a member of Abhinav Bharat, a Hindu extremist outfit allegedly floated by military officer Lt Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit. Indresh Kumar was also known to be associated with the group.

The court on April 3 had also issued notices to Kozhikode collector, Kerala chief secretary, and Indore collector, asking why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against them for failing to respond to earlier notices seeking information about the properties of three absconders in the case—Suresh Nair, Sandeep Dange and Ram Chandra Kalsangra.

On Monday, the court expressed its strong disapproval against the officials for failing to furnish information despite repeated orders, and also asked the NIA to communicate the same to the officials.

Justice Dinesh Gupta had also asked the NIA director general to file a progress report on the efforts made to arrest the three absconders, which the agency did on Monday, saying efforts were on to nab them and included constitution of multiple tracking teams and carrying out raids on receiving inputs.

The NIA also presented the post-mortem reports of two other now-deceased accused in the case—Jayanti Bhai Gohil and Ramesh Gohil—as the court had asked for death verification reports of the duo.

The court had on March 8 found RSS members Sunil Joshi and Devendra Gupta guilty of planning the blast and Bhavesh Bhai Patel of planting the explosive. It, however, acquitted former RSS member Aseemanand and six others in the case.