Aseemanand acquitted in Ajmer blast case

In a major relief for Swami Aseemanand, a special National Investigation Court (NIA) on Wednesday acquitted him in connection with the 2007 Ajmer blast case.

Aseemanand was accused in the Ajmer blast case as per the NIA's chargesheet filed in 2007.

The agency accused Aseemamand of hatching the conspiracy of bombing Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti shrine, thereby killing three people and injuring 17 others.

The hearing into the matter was postponed multiple times as the witnesses made applications delaying their appearance before the court, citing threat to their lives among other reasons.

The investigation in the matter was later handed over to the ATS (Anti-Terrorism Squad) in November 2007.

Later in December 2010, the court chief judicial magistrate court permitted the National Investigation Agency to interrogate accused.

After the change of government at the Centre in 2014, the case was moved in a fast-track court.

Aseemanand is an accused in several other cases of including that of blast at Hyderabad's Mecca Masjid in 2007 and the explosion in the same year on the Samjhauta Express train in which led to killing of 70 passengers on the train running between India and Pakistan.

He was jailed in 2010 after allegedly admitting to his involvement in the terror attack on the train.

Aseemanand later said he had been tortured and made to give a false statement.