Samjhauta blast: Assemanand denies knowing Kamal Chauhan

Panchkula (Haryana) : Hindu activist Swami Aseemanand Wednesday said that he did not know RSS worker Kamal Chauhan, who has been arrested by the National Investigating Agency (NIA) earlier this month, for planting bombs on the Samjhauta express train near Panipat town in Haryana February 2007.

Talking to the media after appearing before a court in this Haryana town adjoining Chandigarh Wednesday, he said that he had no knowledge about Chauhan.

“Main nahin jaanta Kamal Chauhan Kaun hai……yeh sab NIA ki saajish hai (I don’t know who Kamal Chauhan is, all this is a conspiracy of the NIA),” he said.

Kamal Chauhan, an RSS worker had earlier claimed that he had planted bombs on the peace train that links India and Pakistan. The blasts in two bogies had left 68 people dead, most of them Pakistani nationals returning home.

Aseemanand had earlier told the court here that he had no role in the train bombing.

He had accused the NIA of torturing and pressurizing him mentally and physically to extort the statement from him.

Aseemanand, a member of the right-wing Hindu group Abhinav Bharat, was arrested earlier in the 2007 Mecca Masjid blast in Hyderabad, in which 14 people were killed.

The NIA had questioned Aseemanand about his role in the Samjhauta Express blasts Feb 18, 2007, at Diwana village near the industrial town of Panipat, 160 km from here, in Haryana.

Aseemanand was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation Nov 19, 2010 from Haridwar in Uttarakhand for his alleged role in the Mecca Masjid blast.