Swami Aseemanand to walk out of jail after 6 years

Aseemanand was recently acquitted in the Ajmer blast case and is on bail in the Samjhauta Express blast case.

Hyderabad: Six years after he was arrested for alleged involvement in three bombings, Swami Aseemanand is likely to walk out a jail in Hyderabad on Friday.

Yesterday, Aseemanand was granted bail by a court here in the 2007 Mecca Masjid bombing case.

The court has directed Aseemanand not to leave the city without court's permission. He will also have to furnish two securities of Rs 50,000 each before he is set free.

Bharat Mohanlal Rateshwar alias Bharat Bhai, a co-accused in the case, was also granted bail by the court.

Swami Aseemanand, whose real name is Naba Kumar Sarkar, was arrested on November 19, 2010, from Haridwar in connection with the blast at the Mecca Masjid here on May 18, 2007, which had killed nine persons.

On March 8 this year, Aseemanand and six others were acquitted in the 2007 Ajmer blast case by a court in Jaipur.

He was then brought from Jaipur and lodged in a prison here.

Seeking bail, the defence pointed out that Aseemanandhad been acquitted in the Ajmer case while an Ambala court had granted him bail in the 2007 Samjhauta Express blast case.

A total of 166 witnesses have been examined in the trial of the Mecca Masjid case and over 100 are yet to be examined.

Three of the eight accused in the case are already on bail. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had taken over the case from the CBI.

With PTI inputs