NIA closes 2008 Modasa bomb blast investigations

NEW DELHI:In the first concrete indication that investigation into Hindu terror cases are changing course after the BJP led government came to power, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has closed investigations into the 2008 Modasa blast case.

While the report was filed last month, the NIA special court in Ahmedabad recently accepted the report, which cited "insufficient evidence" as the reason for closing the probe. This is the first closure of any of the Hindu terror cases where investigation by NIA had pointed to involvement of several right wing fundamentalists and even former RSS members.

The Modasa blast was carried out on September 29, 2008, a day after the Malegaon attack in the holy month of Ramzan. One person died in Modasa while six were killed in Malegaon. Bombs used in both incidents were similar and were planted on a motorcycle. "If we get any evidence in future, we can always reopen the investigations," said the NIA spokesperson while confirming the closure.

"The probe suffered a setback because we could not detect or apprehend the two main accused Sandeep Dange and Ramji Kalsangra, who were suspected to have orchestrated the Modasa blasts, despite our best efforts," said another senior NIA official. NIA in its closure report has also indicated that the case was transferred to it in 2011 while the incident took place in 2008 due to which crucial evidence was lost.

NIA claimed that while investigations were carried out by retrieving the engine and chassis number of the bike used in the blast, the last three digits could not be read after the explosion. At that point, there was also an assumption that the number was probably tampered to avoid detection. Investigators kept working through various permutations and combinations of the numbers but could not trace the owner.