Panchkula: Swami Aseemanand,
arrested in the Samjhauta train blast case, on Monday claimed he
was not involved in the bombing and was made to give a
confession under duress by the National Investigation Agency.
"I was forced by the NIA to confess that I was
involved in the blast...I am not involved in the case.... The
proof against me is also fabricated by the NIA," Aseemanand
told reporters outside the special court hearing the case.
The court today fixed August 17 as the next date for
hearing on the charge sheet filed in the case by the NIA.
During the in-camera proceedings in the case, the NIA
submitted the "deficient documents" related to the case and
told the court that it would file a supplementary charge
sheet against some other accused soon.
The NIA sought more time from the court so that it
could file the supplementary charge sheet in the case, defence
counsel Manveer Rathi said.
The NIA had on June 20 charged Aseemanand and four
others with triggering explosions in the cross-border
Samjhauta Express in 2007 that left 68 people dead, mostly
Pakistanis.
In the charge sheet filed before the vacation court of
Additional District and Sessions Judge Kanchan Mahi, the NIA
had accused Aseemanand, Sunil Joshi (now dead), Lokesh Sharma,
Sandeep Dange and Ramchandra Kalasangra alias Ramji of
hatching a criminal conspiracy to carry out the bomb blasts
in the train.
Aseemanand and Sharma are already in judicial custody
in Ambala Jail. Both of them were present in the special court
of District Sessions Judge Shubash Mehla here today.
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.
PTI
