Aseemanand, a ‘monk’ with many aliases, one saffron identity : The Tribune India

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Aseemanand, a ‘monk’ with many aliases, one saffron identity

NEW DELHI:Two years, three acquittals and Aseemanand, the self-confessed monk with many aliases and one saffron identity, is now a free man after a special court in Panchkula on Wednesday let him off in the 2007 Samjhauta train bombing case.

Aseemanand, a ‘monk’ with many aliases, one saffron identity

Swami Aseemanand being taken to Panchkula court. File photo



New Delhi, March 20 

Two years, three acquittals and Aseemanand, the self-confessed monk with many aliases and one saffron identity, is now a free man after a special court in Panchkula on Wednesday let him off in the 2007 Samjhauta train bombing case. 

Wearing multiple identities of religious preacher, science student and terror accused, the saffron-robed Aseemanand, once known as the most wanted man in India, was the alleged link between the series of three bombings that ripped through India in 2007.

The chain began on the intervening night of February 17-18 when a bomb exploded on the Samjhauta Express, the only train link between India and Pakistan, killing 68 people.

On May 18, a blast in Hyderabad’s Mecca Masjid killed nine people. And in October the same year, an explosion in Ajmer’s famed Khwaja Chishti shrine claimed three lives. The bespectacled, saffron clad almost cerebral looking 67-year-old, who has been out on bail, has emerged unscathed from all three terror incidents. 

Born Naba Kumar Sarkar in Kamaarpukar village in West Bengal’s Hooghly district, he has many aliases — including Jatin Chatterjee and Omkarnath.

The man of several names, but committed to one shade of saffron came to be popularly known as Swami Aseemanand after he stepped into the national spotlight in 2010 when he was arrested by the CBI for his alleged role in the Mecca Masjid blast.

The story of the man who grew out of his humble beginnings began somewhere in the 1970s.

He had completed his graduation in science in 1971, but his interests lay elsewhere and he became involved with rightwing groups from school, going on to work full time with the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram in Purulia and Bankura districts in the state. It was at the ashram that Naba Kumar Sarkar was christened Swami Aseemanand in 1981, investigators said.

The fiery speaker soon became known for his anti-minority speeches and his relentless campaign against Christian missionaries. In the late 1990s, he settled down in Gujarat’s Dangs district where he started a tribal welfare organisation called Shabri Dham, a Hindu rightwing organisation.

According to a confessional statement given to a judge in 2010, Aseemanand said he was famous for his anti-minority statements. In 2002, things changed after the killing of 30 devotees at the Akshardham temple in Gandhinagar by terrorist suicide bombers and he wanted to avenge the deaths, he said.

Aseemanand spoke of his association with others accused in terror-related cases but retracted the statement later. The NIA did not press perjury charges against him. — PTI


Reactions to judgment

Pakistan had consistently raised the lack of progress and the subsequent, concerted attempts by India to exonerate the perpetrators of this heinous terrorist act in which 44 innocent Pakistanis lost their lives. — Pakistan’s acting Foreign Secretary

The court has said that the National Investigation Agency has failed to prove any of its charges against the accused and the evidence against them was treated as not sufficient. Therefore, the court acquitted them — Mukesh Garg, Aseemanand’s counsel

Despite damning evidence, the accused, including a former RSS member, have been acquitted. God forbid, had they been Kashmiris/Muslims, they would have been pronounced guilty and imprisoned without even a fair trial. Why such double standards and leniency towards saffron terror? — Mehbooba Mufti, PDP president

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