Rahul ducks poser on Aseemanand's acquittal in Mecca blast case

Congress president Rahul Gandhi today dodged a query on acquittal of right-wing activist Swami Aseemanand and four others in the 2007 Mecca Masjid blast by a special anti-terror court.

The Congress president, who began this morning his three-day visit to his Lok Sabha constituency Amethi and to the neighbouring Rae Bareli represented by his mother Sonia Gandhi, refused to take the question on the Hyderabad court verdict, while emerging out of a programme.

Asked by a reporter to comment on the verdict, Rahul ignored the poser and told his driver to move ahead.

Following the verdict, the BJP slammed the Congress today on the issue, saying the opposition party's "appeasement politics" of "defaming" Hindus has been exposed.

Reacting to the court verdict, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra alleged that the Congress has long "defamed" Hindus for votes and demanded that party president Rahul Gandhi and his predecessor Sonia Gandhi apologise for terms such as "saffron terror" and "Hindu terror."