HC junks bail plea of key Ajmer blast accused

A division bench of justices Ajay Rastogi and Meena V Gomber, while rejecting the bail plea, observed that this is not the "appropriate stage" for granting bail, looking at the record and progress of case.

Defence counsel, G S Gill, argued before the court that he (Bharatbhai) was a witness in the first charge-sheet, while in the second charge-sheet he was made an accused.

It was also objected by the counsel that the probing agency, NIA, also made a video of his statement in the case but the copy of the same has not been given to him.

Opposing the bail plea, Additional Solicitor General of India S S Raghav, appearing for NIA, said Bharatbhai was arrested after his name was taken by another key accused Aseemanand in his statements.

He said, it is also an established fact on record that Sunil Joshi, who was murdered and was the mastermind of the entire incident, made his first call to Bharatbhai immediately after the blast and informed him of the accomplishment of task.

The prosecution also said that there are ample statements of various concerned persons, including Aseemanand, which indicate that Bharatbhai was the key financier of the attack on dargah and he should not be given bail.

The Additional Solicitor General also said even if the videography is not taken into consideration there is sufficient material on record to show that the accused was involved in the offence.

After hearing the arguments, the bench dismissed the bail application holding that "bail at this stage is not tenable".

On July 4, the court had directed National Investigating Agency (NIA), to present statement of those person based on which Bharatbhai was nabbed by NIA as one of the key accused in the case.

The blast in the premises of the dargah of Sufi Saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti had left three persons dead and 15 others injured.