It was exactly nine years ago this Wednesday that a bomb ripped through a Friday congregation in the historic Mecca Masjid of Hyderabad killing five people, followed by another 4 in police firing outside the mosque on protesting worshippers. Fifty-eight others were injured when a bomb kept under a stone bench in the mosque court yard exploded soon after the prayers were over and another unexploded bomb was recovered and defused.
With the scars of the incident still visible, city marked the black day with a sense of disquiet under the shadow of heavy security arrangements, specially in the sensitive old city. More than two thousands police and para military personnel were deployed around Mecca Masjid-Charminar complex and other sensitive points to keep a close watch on the situation and to prevent any protest. The situation remained peaceful and calm. The people were wondering whether the incident of Mecca Masjid blast was going the Malegaon way.
The arrest of members of a Hindu terror group — Abhinav Bharat — in connection with the blast added a new chapter to the problem of terrorism in the country. While initially the focus of the investigation by the local police was on the terror outfits like lashkar-e-Tayaba and Harkat-ul-Jihadi Islami (HUJI), with more than hundred local Muslim youths picked up and 26 charged, the course of investigations now completely changed when the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) arrested two members of a Hindu terror group, Devender Gupta and lokesh Sharma. They were accused in Ajmer blast case.
later, the National Investigation Agency took over the case due to the nationwide spread of the terror network and group members involvements in other incidents including the blasts in Ajmer Dargah, Malegaon and Samjhauta Express.
The NIA arrested suspected kingpin of the conspiracy behind the series of blasts Nabakumar Sarkar alias Swamy Aseemanand, Rajendar Chowdhary and Bharat Mohanlal Rateshwar alias Bharat Bhai. Wile chargesheets were filed against all of them two other RSS activists Ramchandra Kalasangar and Sandeep Dange were shown as absconding and they remain untraceable till now. NIA declared a reward of Rs1 million on each one of them. Another accused Sunil Joshi was murdered before the NIA had taken over the case.
After nine long years the Mecca Masjid blast case was still far from closure and the recent development in similar Malegaon blast case seems to be casting its shadows on this case too as two of the Hyderabad case accused were also charged in Malegaon case.
A lot has happened during this period. The Muslim youth charged with conspiracy in connection with the blasts were acquitted by the courts and on the recommendations of the National Commission for Minorities the state government paid them some compensation and also issued a character certificates to help them in social and economic rehabilitation.
On the other hand Swami Aseemanand gave a confession statement to the court about his and others’ role in the blast creating a sensation across the country. However later he backtracked. While he remains in jail despite court granting him bail, the other three accused Devender Gupta, lokesh Sharma and Bharat Bhai were out on the bail.
In the case before the IVth Additional Metropolitan Session Judge, the prosecution has so far produced 76 witnesses and their statements were recorded. The CBI and the NIA have so far filed three charge sheets.
Defence counsel and BJP’s member of Telangana legislative Council N Ramachandra Rao was confident that the case will not hold in the court as there was no evidence to link the accused with the blast.
While the National Investigation Agency in its charge sheet aid that the accused had conspired to carry out the blast in the Muslim religious places to avenge the “Jihadi attacks”, Ramchandra Rao said, “no witness has so far spoken against the accused”. Defence was hoping that the story of Malegaon case, where NIA decided to drop charges against the accused Pragya Thakur, lokesh Sharma and three others, would be repeated in Hyderabad case.
But the NIA said that the crucial witness were yet to depose in the court. “30 of the witnesses were those injured in the blast”, said Harinath Goud, the special public prosecutor of NIA in the case. Crucial witnesses include seller of the SIM cards allegedly used by the accused.
Meanwhile Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh has strongly criticized the Narendra Modi government for trying to save the accused of Malegaon, Ajmer Dargah and Mecca Masjid blast cases. “Clean chit to Sadhvi Pragya is an insult to the martyr Heman Karkare (the slain Maharashtra ATS chief)”, he said. He demanded that the Supreme Court should oversee the investigations in to these cases.
Hyderabad member of Parliament Asaduddin Owasi told a “Meet the Press” program in Hingoli in Maharashtra that a clean chit to Pragya Thakur was suspecting the work of Hemant Karkare. He likened it to character assassination of the later police officer. He said that the former Congress-NCP government of Maharashtra was equally responsible for the victimization of Muslim youth of Malegaon and demanded that they should tender an apology to the Malegaon people.