The historic Mecca Masjid Blast during Friday prayers in Hyderabad on May 18, 2007, left as much as 58 people injured and killed many others.
The special NIA court in Hyderabad acquitted all the accused in 2007 Mecca Masjid Blast case on the basis of lack of evidence. The court said that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) failed to provide enough evidence to back the allegations on the accused.
The historic Mecca Masjid Blast during Friday prayers in Hyderabad on May 18, 2007, left as much as 58 people injured and killed many others. The CBI had filed a charge sheet in the case after an initial investigation by the local police. In 2011, the NIA took the charge of the case from the CBI. The NIA in its investigation named ten people as accused in the case who belonged to right-wing organizations.
Five of them Swami Aseemanand, Lokesh Sharma, Devendra Gupta, Naba Kumar Sarkar and Bharat Mohanlal Rateshwar were arrested and faced the court trial. In the span of seven years, as many as 226 witnesses were examined and 411 documents were scrutinized during the trials.
“We will examine the court judgment after we get a copy of the same and decide further course of action,” NIA said after the verdict.
Ahead of the verdict, a high alert was sounded in the city by the Hyderabad Police. Heavy security was also deployed outside the Nampally Courts Complex where the NIA special court is located.
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