MAKKA MASJID BLAST CASE REOPENED, ABHINAV BHARAT HAND SUSPECTED

MAKKA MASJID BLAST CASE REOPENED, ABHINAV BHARAT HAND SUSPECTED

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August 12, 2022

After three years of the 2007 Makka Masjid blasts, the CBI has decided to reopen its investigation into the case following a link of Abhinav Bharat, a Hindutva outfit. The investigating agency has told the Hyderabad city police that it has not detected any local hand in the blast.

The CBI has claimed to join the dots between the blasts in Hyderabad and in Ajmer. The Ajmer blast also occurred the same year. “The two blasts have a similar pattern and we suspect it as a handiwork of the same outfit,” said a CBI official.

The agency disclosed that Lokesh Sharma, who is the fourth accused in the case, was the man who had conducted recce at Makka Masjid. “He visited the city three times. Once he came along with the other accused, Sandeep Dange,” the agency said, adding that they stayed in a hotel at Secunderabad where they assembled the bomb parts and fixed the timer.

Another Abhinav Bharat activist, Sunil Joshi selected the target. He was mysteriously murdered later and CBI is yet to figure it out. The CBI suspects that Sandeep Dange, Ramji Kaslnagar and Sunil Joshi may have planted the bomb in Makkah Masjid on May 18, 2007.

The investigating agency has also secured permission from a local court to bring Devender Gupta and Lokesh Sharma, the two accused in the Ajmer blast case, to Hyderabad to interrogate them in connection with the Makkah Masjid blast. The CBI has sent a team to Ajmer to bring the duo, currently lodged in the Ajmer jail.