Panchkula: A special court on Wednesday allowed the National Investigation Agency to re-examine the Samjhauta Express blast samples after the NIA pleaded it wants to compare them with the explosions at other places such as in Malegaon, Hyderabad and Ajmer.
The Panchkula court has given its order while hearing the charges against Swami Assemanand and four others in the 2007 Samjhauta Express blast case.
As the proceedings in the case are held in-camera, defence counsel Manveer Rathi later told reporters outside the court that they had opposed the application from the NIA.
After a four-year-long probe, the NIA had on June 20 charged Aseemanand, Sunil Joshi (now dead), Lokesh Sharma, Sandeep Dange and Ramchandra Kalasangra alias Ramji with triggering explosions in the cross-border Samjhauta Express that left 68 people dead, mostly Pakistanis.
Rathi said they opposed the NIA's plea before the court when the agency contended that it wants to re-examine the material of the blasts, which are kept sealed, to make some comparisons with blasts that took place at other places.
"We opposed this as we apprehended that they (NIA) may tamper (with it)," Rathi said, adding, the court allowed the plea allowing examination by the agency on August 21, 22 on the grounds that defence lawyers will remain present during the process.
The case will now come up for next hearing on September 13 as the court of district and sessions judge Subhash Mehla adjourned the matter.
In the chargesheet filed in June before the vacation court of additional district and sessions judge Kanchan Mahi, the NIA had accused the five of hatching a criminal conspiracy which resulted in bomb blasts in the train.
Aseemanand and Sharma are already in judicial custody in Ambala Jail.
Apart from Ajmer Dargah blast, which claimed three lives and left 15 others injured, Aseemanand and Lokesh Kumar Sharma are accused in several other blast cases across the country, including those at Hyderabad's Mecca Masjid and Malegaon.
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