Samjhauta blast case: NIA denied custody of RSS worker

A special court in Panchkula on Friday declined the application of National Investigation Agency seeking further custody of Kamal Chauhan, a disgruntled Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh worker arrested by the investigation agency, in connection with the Samjhauta Express blast.

Sending Chauhan to judicial custody, the court posted the case for further hearing till March 7.

The NIA contended, in the in-camera proceedings, that Chauhan had revealed "certain facts" which further need to be investigated.

The NIA told the court that Chauhan had travelled under fictitious names from Indore to Delhi and was also involved in planting of bombs on the train, Central Bureau of Investigation prosecutors R K Handa and Rajan Malhotra told reporters outside the court.

The investigating agency also apprised the court that Chauhan had given Rs 1 lakh to another accused in the case, who is still absconding, Handa said.

Chauhan on previous hearings had told reporters outside the court premises that, "he knows nothing about Aseemanand."

However, on February 14, Chauhan had admitted before media that he had planted bombs on board Samjhauta Express in 2007 that left 68 people, mostly Pakistanis, dead.

Aseemanand too had told media that he did not know Chauhan.

Showing no remorse at the previous hearing on February 14, Chauhan had told media that "Yes, I have done it (planting bombs on the train) on my will."

The NIA had alleged that Indore-based Chauhan had planted bombs on board Samjhauta Express and had undergone training in arms and explosives in Haryana and Madhya Pradesh.

Investigations had so far revealed that Chauhan along with Ramchandra Kalasangra alias Ramji and Lokesh Sharma, also charged in the case, had planted the explosives in the train at Old Delhi, from where the train originates, the NIA had maintained.

Chauhan, believed to be a close aide of Kalsangra and Sandeep Dange, key accused in the Samjhauta case, was arrested from Noida on Delhi's outskirts recently. Born in Mhow, he was an activist of the Rashtirya Swayamsevak Sangh.

After a four-year probe, the NIA had on June 20, 2011, charged Aseemanand, Sunil Joshi (now dead), Lokesh Sharma, Dange alias Parmanand and Kalasangra for hatching a criminal conspiracy which resulted in blasts in Samjhauta Express near Deewana railway station in Haryana's Panipat district, about 80km from Delhi.

NIA is also investigating the role of Sadhvi Pragya Thakur and Indresh Kumar in the blasts. Swami Aseemanand and Sharma are already in judicial custody.

Apart from Ajmer Dargah blast, which claimed three lives and left 15 others injured, Aseemanand and Sharma are accused in several other blast cases across the country, including those at Hyderabad's Mecca Masjid and Malegaon.