Sabridham not aware if Aseemanand is out of jail

SURAT: Aseemanand alias Naba Kumar Sarkar, key accused in Samjhauta Express train blast case of 2007 and other explosion cases, who got 10 days of interim bail on Tuesday from Punjab and Haryana high court to visit his ailing mother in Kolkata, is likely to come out of the jail for the first time since his arrest in 2010.
There was no jubilation over the development in Dang district where he had spent over 10 years, and his one-time associates avoided talking about him. National Investigation Agency (NIA) sleuths had found out during their investigation that the plan to bomb the train and trigger explosion at other places in the country was hatched in Dang by the accused and his aides.
Sabridham in Subir village of Dang looks deserted and no one knows about his release. Vijay Patel, former BJP MLA, who was once close to Aseemanand, claimed that he was not aware about swami getting bail from the high court.
“I did not visit him since many years and no one at Sabridham in Dang is aware about his bail. He will be coming out from the jail on bail for the first time since his arrest. No one in Sabridham had contact with Swamiji since he was in jail. Those who worked with Swamiji to develop Sabridham are now running the affairs of the temple,” said Patel, who is secretary of Gujarat BJP’s tribal cell.
Aseemanand created a base for Hindutva groups in the tribal-dominated district of south Gujarat. Investigators believe the “bomb-for-bomb'' policy of the extremist groups was formulated at Shabridham between February 11 and 13, 2006.
Aseemanand was charge-sheeted in Samjhauta Express, Mecca Masjid and Ajmer Dargah blasts cases. He was granted bail in Samjhauta Express blast case in 2014 but remained in Ambala jail for his alleged role in the other two blast cases.