2007 Ajmer Dargah Blast: Accused Who Supplied Bomb Arrested After 11 Years in Bharuch

The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is probing the case, had announced a reward of Rs 2 lakh on head of the accused, identified as Suresh Nair.

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Sunday arrested an accused in the 2007 Ajmer dargah bomb blast case.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is probing the case, had announced a reward of Rs 2 lakh on head of the accused, identified as Suresh Nair.

As per the NIA, Nair had allegedly supplied a bomb to the planters at the famous sufi shrine in Rajasthan and was also present at the spot, the Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) said in a statement.

Three persons were killed and 17 others injured in the blast that occurred on October 11, 2007.

After he was apprehended from Bharuch, Nair was shifted to Ahmedabad for further investigation, the ATS said.

He is a resident of Thasara in Kheda district of Gujarat.

“Officials of Gujarat ATS had received a credible information that Suresh Nair will visit Shukaltirth in Bharuch in near future, following which a close watch was kept at the place,” the agency said, adding that Nair was apprehended from the spot.

He will be handed over to the NIA, it said.

A special NIA court in Jaipur had in March 2017 acquitted key accused activist Swami Aseemanand and six others, giving them “benefit of doubt”. Others acquitted by the court included Harshad Solanki, Lokesh Sharma, Mehul Kumar, Mukesh Vasani, Bharat Bhai and Chandrashekar.

Three others — Devendra Gupta, Bhavesh Patel and Sunil Joshi – were handed life imprisonment after being convicted under various sections of IPC, Explosive Substances Act and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

However, in the last week of August, Patel of Bharuch and Gupta (42) of Ajmer were granted bail by the Rajasthan High Court after their lawyers argued that the men had been convicted on the basis of “human probability… circumstantial evidence… conjectures”.