Ajmer dargah blast case convicts awarded life imprisonment

March 22,2017 | The Hindu The National Investigation Agency (NIA) Special Court here on Wednesday awarded life imprisonment to two persons convicted for the 2007 Ajmer dargah blasts, in which three persons were killed. Both the convicts owed allegiance to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Singh in the past. The convicts, Bhavesh Patel and Devendra Gupta, were held guilty under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, Explosives Act and various sections of Indian Penal Code. This is the first-ever conviction and sentencing of the RSS cadre in a terror case. NIA Special Judge Dinesh Gupta also imposed a fine of Rs.10,000 on Patel and Rs.5,000 on Gupta. Patel was an RSS activist at his hometown Bharuch in Gujarat, while Gupta, a resident of Ajmer, worked for RSS in Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh. The court had convicted three persons and acquitted seven others, including self-styled monk and former RSS activist Aseemanand, in the case on March 8 and postponed the verdict on sentence to those found guilty. The third convict, Sunil Joshi, who was an RSS pracharak, was murdered in suspicious circumstances in December 2007. Defence counsel Jagdish Rana told reporters outside the court that the convicts would file an appeal against the judgment in the High Court.

The explosion in the historic shrine of Sufi mystic Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti on October 11, 2007, during Ramzan, had left three persons dead and 17 injured. The dargah was packed to capacity with about 5,000 devotees when the blast occurred at the time of Iftaar (breaking of fast).