City -based activists on Saturday urged Chief Minister Revanth Reddy to ensure that the investigation into the Mecca Masjid blast case is reopened. They observed the 17th anniversary of the tragedy. Tabling of the Bhaskar Rao Commission’s report in the Telangana Assembly is one of the demands put forth by the group.
In a statement the activists said, “Seventeen years ago today, on May 18, the Mecca Masjid was struck by a terror attack that killed nine people and injured 58. The tragedy did not end there as the police opened fire on an irate crowd that had gathered in the immediate aftermath, resulting in the deaths of five more individuals. Since that day, justice has eluded both those killed in the blast and those killed by the police.
While the Hussaini Alam police registered two cases, the Central Bureau of Investigation took over after re-registering them. Evidence pointed to the involvement of Hindutva elements in the blast. About a year later, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) was constituted. It took over the investigation. A charge-sheet was filed naming five people, including Naba Kumar Sarkar, alias Swami Aseemanand. However, after a lengthy trial, the NIA failed to prosecute the accused and in April 2018 the Special NIA Court acquitted all the accused.
Shockingly, the NIA, which operates under the Ministry of Home Affairs, chose not to appeal the verdict. The travesty is that when victims attempted to file an appeal in the Telangana High Court against the acquittal of the accused, the NIA Special Prosecutor objected on grounds of maintainability of the plea. It raised serious questions about the role and commitment of the NIA in handling this case. The Ministry of Home Affairs has not addressed the matter to date, highlighting the shortcomings of the BJP government’s purported zero-tolerance policy in dealing with terrorism, they said.
