Patna blasts suspect gets bail

A suspect in the Patna serial blasts that shook the Bihar capital in October 2013 was Thursday granted bail as the National Investigation Agency (NIA) failed to file a chargesheet against him, a government lawyer said.

Tabish Niyaz alias Arshad Ansari, a resident of Alauli village in East Champaran district, was arrested by the NIA as a suspect soon after the blasts.

"The court granted him bail on the ground that NIA has failed to file a chargesheet against him in the last six months," the lawyer said.

He was one of the several suspects who have been arrested so far for the serial blasts at the then BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi's Lok Sabha election rally here.

At least seven people were killed and scores of others injured when bombs exploded at a make-shift railway platform and at the Gandhi Maidan.

Though Niyaz was not named in the FIR filed in the case, the NIA said he was one of the main accused.

He was also alleged to be a member of the Indian Mujahideen and was allegedly associated for three years with one of the main accused Haider alias "Black Beauty".

The police said Niyaz carried out reconnaissance of the Gandhi maidan and its surrounding areas Oct 8, 9 and 10, while staying at a hotel in Patna.

His house in Motihari was alleged to have been used as a "retreat" by the accused after the blasts.

Niyaz is a graduate in psychology, a student of Doranda College in Ranchi. He has worked with an NGO. Though a resident of Motihari, he spent most of his life in Ranchi in Jharkhand.