A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court had acquitted Swami Aseemanand and three others, in the 2007 Samjhauta Express blast case, in which 70 passengers were killed.
NIA court Additional Sessions Judge Jagdeep Singh said in his detailed 160-page judgment, "I have to conclude this judgment with deep pain and anguish as a dastardly act of violence remained unpunished for want of credible and admissible evidence. There are gaping holes in the prosecution evidence and an act of terrorism has remained unsolved."
"Terrorism has no religion because no religion in the world preaches violence. A Court of Law is not supposed to proceed on popular or predominant public perception or the political discourse of the day and ultimately it has to appreciate the evidence on record and arrive at a final conclusion on the basis of relevant statutory provisions and settled law applicable thereto. Since findings of a court of law are
based on admissible evidence as per law, the pain becomes more acute when perpetrators of heinous crime remain unidentified and unpunished,’’ the judgement read.
"It is generally noticed that a malaise has set in the investigating agencies which coin various terms law Muslim terrorism, Hindu fundamentalism etc or brand an act of criminals as acts of particular religion, caste or community. A criminal element, belonging to a particular religion, community or caste, cannot be projected as representative of such particular religion, community or caste and branding the entire community, caste or religion in the name of such criminal element(s) would be totally unjustified and it would be in the best interests of humankind to nip such tenancies in the bud lest we should be
heading towards intense civil war or caught in a whirlpool of fratricide.’’ stated
the judgement.
The judge observed, "It is further trite to say that suspicion, however grave, cannot take the place of proof and it is cardinal principal of criminal jurisprudence that charge against an accused can only be established by adducing evidence beyond reasonable doubt. A few bits here and a few bits thereon which prosecution relies cannot be held to be adequate or connecting the accused with the crime in question," he said.
The judgement stated that the NIA miserably failed to prove the charges framed against the accused and failed to adduce evidence beyond reasonable doubt to make out the culpability of the accused. "In the present case, there is no evidence regarding any agreement to commit the crime amongst the accused persons. There is no evidence regarding any meeting of minds between the accused to commit the crime. No concrete oral, documentary or scientific evidence has been brought on record to connect the accused, facing the trial, with the crime in question. There is not an iota of evidence to make out any motive on the part of the accused to indulge in the crime,’’ it stated.
The judgment further read that there is no evidence on record to show as to how and from where the raw materials for the bombs were procured and who collected the material to prepare the explosives. “The entire prosecution case is found to have been built on inadmissible evidence in the shape of disclosure
statements of the accused, without there being any discovery of new fact, recovery of material or object.’’