Panchkula: A Pakistani woman on Monday moved the anti-terror court here, just as it was about to pronounce the Samjhauta Express blast verdict.
The court, in view of the development, has deferred the decisive hearing to March 14.The Pakistani national has filed a petition, seeking to present new evidence in the 12-year-old case. She told the court that her father was among those killed in the blast.
She has sought examination of the blast eyewitnesses from her country, contending that her co-nationals either did not receive proper summonses from the court or were denied visas by authorities to appear before it. She pleaded that all eyewitnesses to the case from her country were ready to appear before the court for their depositions and they should be examined in the interest of justice.
Special Judge Singh asked the petitioner’s counsel why the plea was being made at the fag-end of the trial, reminding him that several chances were given to all the 13 Pakistani witnesses to record their statements before the court. “The eyewitnesses/Pakistani witnesses do not have any knowledge that the trial is concluding, because no proper summons were served on them,” she said in her plea. The NIA would give its reply to the woman’s application on March 14.
The blast in Samjhauta Express had occurred near Panipat on February 18, 2007, when the train was on its way to Attari in Amritsar, the last railway station on the Indian side. The blast had ripped apart two coaches of Samjhauta Express, killing 68 people, mostly Pakistani nationals.
Among the eight accused is Naba Kumar Sarkar, alias Swami Aseemanand. He is out on bail since December 2016 and had allegedly confessed in 2010 that he and other right-wing activists were behind explosions at several places of worship. But he withdrew his confession, claiming that he gave the statement under duress.
