Samjhauta case: Hearing on charge sheet on August 17

Panchkula (Haryana), Jul 18 (PTI) A special court
hearing the Samjhauta blast case Monday fixed August 17 as the
next date for hearing on the charge sheet filed in the matter
by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) of India.
During the in-camera proceedings in the case, the NIA
submitted the "deficient documents" related to the case and
also told the court that it would file a supplementary charge
sheet against some other accused soon.
However, the NIA sought some 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 Swami Aseemanand and
four others with triggering explosions in the cross-border
Samjhauta Express in 2007 that left 68 people dead and 12
injured.
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 which resulted in bomb blasts
in the tain.
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 in the north
Indian state Monday.
Talking to reporters outside court, Aseemanand said,
"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."
Apart from Ajmer Dargah blast, which claimed three
lives and left 15 others injured, Aseemanand and Lokesh Kumar
Sharma are accused in several other blast cases across the
country, including those at Hyderabad's Mecca Masjid and
Malegaon.