RSS ties doesn’t make one communal: Mecca judge

HYDERABAD: Hours before he made his sensational decision to resign after acquitting five accused in the Mecca Masjid bomb blast case, special court judge K Ravinder Reddy dismissed contentions made by National Investigation Agency, especially evidence put forth before him by CBI, which had earlier investigated the case, as “untrustworthy”. Ravinder Reddy, the IV additional metropolitan sessions judgecum-special judge for NIA cases, observed “any person associated with RSS is not communal and not anti-social”.
The judge, while discussing the NIA charge, questioned whether the prosecution proved beyond doubt that Devender Gupta was communal for just being a pracharak of RSS? ``The RSS is not proscribed organisation. If any person works in it, it does not give any scope that he is a communal,’’ the judge said in his 140-page judgement.

NIA judge states RSS tag is not communal

Hours before he made his dramatic decision to resign after acquitting five accused in the Mecca Masjid blast case, special court judge K Ravinder Reddy dismissed contentions made by National Investigation Agency (NIA), particularly evidence by Central Bureau Investigation (CBI) as “untrustworthy”. CBI was probing the case before handing it over to NIA. Ravinder Reddy, the fourth additional metropolitan sessions judge & special judge for NIA cases, observed “anybody associated with RSS doesn’t make him communal or anti-social”.

The judge, while discussing the NIA charge, questioned whether the prosecution proved beyond doubt Devender Gupta was communal for just being a RSS pracharak? “RSS is not proscribed organisation. If any person works for it, it does not give any scope for him to communal and anti-social,” the judge wrote in the 140-page judgment.


In the order, Ravinder Reddy reduced the Mecca Majid blast case to 18 points and discussed each point at length. As far as the conversation between Aseemanand, Maqbool Bin Ali and Shaik Abdul Kaleem at the Chanchalguda Jail, which was the basis of Aseemanand’s statement before a judge in Delhi, the special judge called the “extra judicial confession is false”.

“This court holds the testimony given by Maqbool as untrustworthy and false. Kaleem was also interrogated by CBI officer Raja Balaji in Mecca Masjid blast case in the first round of investigation. And, he was also subjected to narco-anlaysis test... Kaleem is under police surveillance and he obliged to turn witness. At the same time, no documentary evidence is there on record to show that Kaleem was in Chanchalguda jail when Aseemanand was languishing in the same prison. Therefore, this court holds evidence as false,” the order stated.

On the deposition by Aseemanand before a judge in Delhi on December 18, 2010 and later retracting the statement, Judge Ravinder Reddy said, “Confession by Aseemanand in Delhi is hit by Section 26 of Indian Evidence Act. This court holds the confession statement of Aseemanand was not voluntary, which was recorded during the course of police custody.’’ “The statement has also been retracted by Aseemanand four months later. Facts and circumstances of the authority relied on by NIA, wherein the officer who recorded the confessional statement of the accused has assured that he will not hand him over to police and he will be sent back to jail. But the fact and circumstances of the case show that the Delhi judge handed over Aseemanand to CBI officer Raja Balaji. It is admitted fact that Aseemanad was in the police custody on December 18, 2010.”

“The prosecution also failed to prove that accused Lokesh Sharma was the one who purchased the two Nokia 6030 mobile handsets in 2007,” he said in the verdict.