Special NIA Court Acquits All 10 Accused In Mecca Masjid Blast Case

A Special NIA court in Hyderabad acquitted all the ten accused in the Mecca Masjid Blast case. The verdict was delivered nearly 10 years after a pipe bomb exploded the mosque in old city that left eight people dead while injuring 58. Besides, Police firing to quell the mob resulted in the death of five others during Friday Prayers at Charminar's famous Mecca Masjid on May 18,2007.

Ten persons from Abhinav Bharat, including Nabakumar Sirkar alias Swami Aseemanand; Devender Gupta; Lokesh Sharma alias Ajay Tiwari, Lakshman Das Maharaj, Mohanlal Rateshwar and Rajender Chowdhary were named as accused in the Mecca Masjid case. Two accused, Ramchandra Kalsangra and Sandeep Dange, are still at large. A key accused and RSS functionary, Sunil Joshi, was shot when the case was being investigated.

After the local police and the CBI did the initial probe, the case was further transferred to the NIA who began investigating the case in April 2011. According to a news report, a total of 226 witnesses were examined during the trial and as many as 411 documents exhibited. During the examination, 64 of them, including Lt Col Shrikant Purohit, turned hostile.

In today's development, the NIA court in Hyderabad pronouncing its judgment said that no prood was presented before acquitting all the ten accused in the Hyderabad Mecca Masjid case.