The Ajmer Dargah bombing (also called the Ajmer Sharif blast) occurred on 11 October 2007, in the courtyard of Sufi maulana Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer, Rajasthan, India, after the Iftar period had started. On 22 March 2017 a Special NIA Court convicted three Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh pracharaks Devendra Gupta, Bhavesh Patel and Sunil Joshi.[3][4][5] Sunil Joshi and Devendra Gupta were found guilty on charges of conspiracy and Bhavesh Bhai Patel was found guilty of planting the explosive on the blast site. Gupta and Patel were awarded life imprisonment.[5] Sunil Joshi had been found shot dead in mysterious circumstances soon after the blast in Dewas, Madhya Pradesh.[6]
Attack
At 6.12 pm on 11 October 2007, an explosion occurred near a courtyard outside the Dargah of Khawaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer.[7] Evening prayers had just concluded before the end of the fasting month of Ramadan and a crowd had gathered outside the shrine to end their fast.[1] The bomb had been concealed in a tiffin carrier, which workers typically used to store their lunch.[2] The blast killed 3[8] people and injured 17 others.[9][10] Remnants of a mobile phone were retrieved from the site.[7] Lalit Maheswari of the Ajmer police stated, "We have recovered some mobile instruments, so we think some sophisticated device was used ...".[1]
The focus of investigation shifted to Hindu groups when Swami Aseemanand was arrested in the Mecca Masjid blast case in Dec 2010.
On 22 October 2010, five suspects, who had been arrested by the Anti-Terrorism Squad of India, were charged with conspiracy in connection to the bombing. Four of the five suspects were connected to the Hindu nationalist organization, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.[11]
According to sources, Patel was part of the five-member group that planted the bomb at Ajmer Dargah. While two planters 'Harshad Solanki and Mukesh Vasani' have already been charge sheeted, Patel was part of a back-up team, including Suresh Nair and Mehul alias Mafat Bhai, which went to the site as a contingency plan to take charge of the affairs in case the two planters failed to place the bomb or developed cold feet.
On 10 October 2007, Suresh Nair, Mehul and Bhavesh Patel took a consignment of explosives from Sunil Joshi, who was later found murdered under mysterious circumstances in Godhra. They reached Vadodara on the same day and boarded a private bus for Udaipur. At Ajmer, however, the bomb was given to Solanki and Vasani planted it. Patel was also accused of having been involved in the post-Godhra riots in Gujarat, but was acquitted by the court.
NIA also filed another charge sheet against Swami Aseemanand, whose confession helped the agency open Hyderabad's Mecca Masjid blast and Malegaon 2006 blast cases, along with Sandeep Dangae, Bhawesh Patel, Mehul, Suresh Bhai, Ramchandra Kalsangra, Sunil Joshi and Bharat Bhai. According to the charge sheet filed, Swami Aseemanand conceived the plan to avenge Islamic attacks on Hindu temples.[12][1][10]
Another individual accused in the attack was Bharat Bhai alias Bharat Rateshwar, who is also accused of financing several other Hindutva terrorist attacks such the Mecca Masjid blast and the 2007 Samjhauta Express bombings. He was accused of funding and planning terrorist attacks on Muslim to avenge the attacks on Hindus in India.[14]
Conviction
On 8 March 2017, a special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Jaipur found guilty three ex-RSS pracharaks, Bhavesh Patel, Devendra Gupta, and Sunil Joshi (who was murdered in 2007).[5][15][16] Both Patel and Gupta were awarded life imprisonments and imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000 respectively.[5]Swami Aseemanand and 6 other accused were acquitted, giving them the "benefit of doubt".[5][17][18][19] At the same time, the court questioned the NIA on its clean chit to two of the other accused, Ramesh Gohil and Amit, as well as "suspicious persons" such as the senior RSS leader Indresh Kumar and Pragya Singh Thakur stating that it could not be done without invoking appropriate sections of CrPC.[5][20]Pragya Singh Thakur later went on to be elected as Member of parliament, Lok Sabha from Bhopal in May 2019.
^Koppikar, Smruti; Dasgupta, Debarshi; Hasan, Snigdha (19 July 2010). "The Mirror Explodes". Outlook. India. Archived from the original on 29 November 2010. Retrieved 12 January 2011.
