Mecca Masjid bomb blast: Court to pronounce verdict today

A special NIA court is likely to pronounce its verdict in the Mecca Masjid blast case today. The fourth additional metropolitan sessions and the special court for NIA cases had concluded the trial and posted the case for judgement on April 16.

The blast which took place in Hyderabad on May 18, 2007, during Friday prayers killed nine people and injured 58 others with 10 members of Abhinav Bharat including Nabakumar Sirkar alias Swami Aseemanand; Mohanlal Rateshwar, Devender Gupta; Lakshman Das Maharaj, Lokesh Sharma alias Ajay Tiwari, and Rajender Chowdhary were named as accused in the case. Two others - Ramchandra Kalsangra and Sandeep Dange are still learned to be absconding while a key accused and RSS



functionary, Sunil Joshi, was shot during the investigation of the case.

Currently, Swami Aseemanand and Bharat Mohanlal Rateshwar are out on bail while three others have been lodged in Hyderabad's Central Prison.