The Andhra Pradesh High Court set aside the bail orders granted by local court on two accused in the 2007 Mecca Masjid bomb blast case. Considering the National Investigation Agency’s objections over the bail order (by lower court), the court has suspended the order of the lower court and notices issued to the accused Devendra Gupta and Lokesh Sharma, who are currently lodged in a jail at Jaipur. Earlier, local court, on November 26, granted conditional bail to Gupta and Sharma, who also figure among the five people named in the charge sheet filed by the Rajasthan ATS in the 2007 Ajmer blast case.
A cell phone-controlled pipe bomb had gone off at the historical Mecca Masjid near Charminar during Friday prayers on May 18, 2007, killing nine people. Five more were killed when police fired upon a mob protesting the blast. NIA, last year, filed a charge sheet against Swami Aseemanand and five others in this case. The CBI, which had earlier probed the case, had named six people in its FIR, all with links with a Hindutva outfit.