New Delhi, March 25: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is likely to take over all the seven cases relating to Hindu terror groups being probed by the police in different States and the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Though the Union Home Ministry had decided to hand over all the seven cases to the NIA, a draft notification to this effect, sent by it last week to the Law Ministry, is likely to be approved soon. Well-placed sources in the Home Ministry said a formal notification would be issued soon.
While the September 2006 Malegaon blast, in which 38 were killed, is being probed by the CBI, the February 2007 Samjhauta Express blast that claimed the lives of 67 passengers is being investigated by the NIA. The NIA is also probing the Modasa bomb blast of September 2008.
While the Rajasthan police are looking into the Ajmer Sharif blast of October 2007 in which three persons were killed, the Madhya Pradesh police are probing RSS pracharak Sunil Joshi murder case of December 2007. Yet another case of a blast in Malegaon in September 2008, in which five persons were killed, is being probed by the Mumbai police. The Mecca Masjid bomb blast of May 2007 in Hyderabad is being investigated by the CBI.
Though the BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh Government is said to be reluctant to hand over the probe into Joshi’s murder, the Home Ministry is keen that a unified probe by the NIA be carried out in all cases where the alleged involvement of right-wing terror groups was suspected.
The Madhya Pradesh police recently chargesheeted some accused, including Sadhvi Pragnya Singh Thakur — already lodged in jail for her alleged involvement in the 2008 Malegaon blasts — in the Joshi murder case.
The NIA Act empowers the Centre to unilaterally hand over any terror case to the agency and does not require the State government’s consent. However, Madhya Pradesh has contended that there is no “terror angle” in the Joshi case.
The decision to hand over the cases to the NIA was taken after security agencies expressed concern that the accused could use differences in the multiple probe at the trial stage to dilute charges against them.
RSS activist Sunil Joshi was shot dead at Dewas, Madhya Pradesh, in December 2007. Samjhauta blast accused Swami Aseemanand, who is in jail, in his confessional statement named Joshi as one of the key conspirators in the right-wing terror network.
The BJP has criticised the move to bring all cases under the NIA. Party spokesman Prakash Javadekar said: “If it is the government thinking, then this is the most absurd and most communal decision … because you cannot colour terror.”
–Agencies