The Central Bureau of Investigation is all set to bring the accused in the Ajmer blast, Devender Gupta and Lokesh Sharma, to Hyderabad in connection with the Mecca Masjid blast of May 2007.
A special CBI court in Hyderabad has issued a prisoners transit warrant to bring the duo to the city and produce before it. The 14th additional chief metropolitan magistrate issued the warrant after the investigating agency submitted a memo seeking the arrest of the duo, presently lodged in Ajmer, and two others.
The CBI made the move almost two months after the Anti Terrorist Squad of Rajasthan arrested Devender Gupta for his involvement in the blast in Ajmer dargah in October 2007. It was during his interrogation that the links to the blast in Mecca Masjid in May 2007 came to light.
CBI sources indicated that the duo will be brought to Hyderabad by June 14, 2010, and produced in court.
Two other accused -- Sandeep Dange and Ramachandra Kasalangara alias Ramji -- are absconding along with the suspected kingpin, Swami Aseemanand. The CBI said the search was on for them.
According to the CBI, Devender Gupta and Lokesh Sharma were involved in the bomb blast during the Friday congregation on May 18, 2007, in Mecca Masjid, in which six people were killed.
The CBI was also looking at the possibility of some local elements being involved in the conspiracy and the terror attack, as the duo had stayed in Hyderabad for almost two months before the incident.
According to the CBI, the SIM cards and mobile phones used in the blast were purchased by Devender Gupta by using a fake driving licence. The CBI, which worked with the Rajasthan ATS to gather information from the arrested persons, has learnt that the mobile phone bomb was assembled by Sandeep Dange and Ramji.
Member of Parliament from Hyderabad, Asaduddin Owaisi, expressed his surprise that the CBI has taken such a long time to reach the real culprits when it had become clear soon after the arrest of Abhinav Bharat activists Pragya Thakur and Colonel Purohit that it was involved in the Mecca Masjid blast.
"At least now they should bring out the real story and nab all the culprits and get them punished by the courts," he said.
He also demanded that justice should also be done to 100-odd Muslim youth of Hyderabad who were detained and tortured on the "baseless suspicion of being involved in Mecca Masjid blast".
