Revision as of 12:51, 7 April 2017

2006, did not help in Ajmer Sharif blast

Bharti Jain, In '06, Yogi had snubbed Ajmer Sharif blast convict Mar 25, 2017: The Times of India

HIGHLIGHTS

Yogi had shrugged off Sunil Joshi when he met him at Gorakhpur to seek his help to “arrange some SIM cards and weapons."

In Aseemanand's “confessional“ statement, he was told by Sunil Joshi in June 2006 that he had not got any help from either Yogi or Rajeshwar Singh.

UP CM Yogi Aditya Nath had shrugged off Sunil Joshi, a convict in the 2007 Ajmer Sharif blast case, when he met him at Gorakhpur in 2006 to seek his help to "arrange some SIM cards and weapons", according to Swami Aseemanand's "confessional" statement recorded under Section 164 of CrPC but retracted later.

TOI, based on a reconstruction of events from statements recorded before a magistrate by Aseemanand and Bharat Mohan Rateshwar alias Bharat Bhai, both accused in the Ajmer blast who are now acquitted by Special NIA court, Jaipur, has found that Sunil Joshi and Bharat Bhai had a meeting with Yogi Adityanath, then MP from Gorakhpur, in April 2006, at Aseemanand's behest. The latter had directed them in March 2006 to go to Agra to meet local Rajeshwar Singh and then get an audience with Yogi in Gorakhpur.

The two first went to Agra, where they met Rajeshwar who then took them to Gorakhpur to meet Yogi Adityanath. However, when they did get a chance to meet Yogi alone, he, as per the statement of Aseemanand recorded before a magistrate as well as an ac count provided by Bharat Bhai in his own statement under Section 164 of CrPC, showed no interest in their conversation and asked them to come back another day . "I am busy . You may meet me again after duly seeking time," Yogi was quoted by Bharat Bhai and Aseemanand as saying.

Joshi and Bharat Bhai thereafter left Gorakhpur and made no attempt to seek a second meeting with Yogi Aditya Nath. In fact, as per Aseemanand's "confessional" statement, he was told by Sunil Joshi in June 2006 that he had not got any help from either Yogi or Rajeshwar Singh.

Interestingly, Aseemanand later retracted the aforesaid confessional statement, claiming that it was made under duress. Only last week, a NIA court acquitted Swami Aseemanand, Bharat Bhai as well as others in the Ajmer blasts case but convicted three others --Sunil Joshi (deceased), Devendra Singh and Bhavesh Patel.An NIA officer said that there was no scope for examining Yogi while probing the Ajmer blasts, as the statements of both Aseemanand and Bharat Bhai established that he had paid no heed to their alleged subversion plan, let alone be a party to the same. NIA had taken over probe into the Ajmer Sharif dargah blasts in 2011.