CHANDIGARH: Former Haryana cadre IPS officer Vikash Narain Rai who had cracked the Samjhauta Express train blast case in which 68 passengers including 43 Pakistani nationals were killed question’s the Nation Investigation Agency’s (NIA) handling of the case. Rai headed the special investigation team (SIT) of the Haryana police from 2007 to 2010.
Speaking with New Indian Express over phone, Vikash Narain Rai former Director General (Law and Order) of Haryana Police said, "It is for the NIA to answer that why the witnesses resiled (back-traced) in this case. As they have turned hostile in the court even after giving statements under 164 of CrPC, the investigating agency should press perjury charges on them."
"The general perception is that NIA had gone soft in this case. One can further comment once the complete judgment comes," says the 1977 batch IPS officer who now resides in Delhi.
"The NIA used the same modus operandi which we took when we started probing this blast. All these cases of Ajmer shrine, Mecca Masjid and Malegaon blasts are interlinked.’’
He recalls that when they started investigating the case, the evidence trail took their team to Indore where RSS member Sunil Joshi, the alleged mastermind and two of his accomplices were found to be complicit. However, before they could lay their hands on Joshi, he was shot dead.
A Special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Wednesday acquitted all the accused including the 67-year-old former Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) member Swami Aseemanand in the 12-year-old Samjhauta Express train blast case in which 68 passengers including 43 Pakistani nationals were killed.
The main accused in the case Swami Aseemanand, Lokesh Sharma, Kamal Chauhan and Rajinder Chaudhary were present in the court when the verdict was announced and they were acquitted. Before pronouncing the verdict, NIA special judge Jagdeep Singh dismissed the plea filed by a Pakistani national Rahila Wakeel for recording her statement.