The Centre has issued a notification transferring the 2006 Malegaon blast and 2008 Mecca Masjid blast cases from the CBI to the National Investigation Agency (NIA). The notification was issued on Saturday, two days ahead of the Indo-Pak home secretary-level talks where India is asking Pakistan to proceed against the terror outfits active on its soil.
Notably, Pakistan is also asking India to proceed against the groups responsible for the 2007 Samjhauta train bombings, being probed by the NIA, after the role of Hindu extremists in the terror attack came to light. The home ministry has proposed that all terror cases involving Hindu extremists be handed over to the NIA to fast track investigation.
The law ministry, meanwhile, is examining the cases which need to be handed over by state governments to the NIA like the Sunil Joshi murder case, Malegaon 2008 and the 2008 Ajmer Sharif blast case involving Hindu extremist groups.
The government wants to tread cautiously as any move should not impinge on the jurisdiction of the states, the sources said. However, an “in principle’’ decision has already been taken by the government to hand over all “Hindu terror’’ cases to the NIA, the sources said pointing out that the government is meting out “equal treatment’’ to all terror cases in the country.
The law ministry is examining various issues of whether there is a need for a special court for hearing all the related cases, involving Hindu extremists like Swami Aseemanand and Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, who have been charged in more than one cases to avoid the hassle of transporting the accused from one court to another.
The law ministry is also examining the need for the NIA to approach the court hearing the particular case on the issue of re-registration of FIR in the cases.
Another issue concerns “propriety’’ since chargesheets have already been filed in most cases by the agency concerned. It may be recalled that the Madhya Pradesh government had earlier refused to hand over the case to the NIA saying that the state police is already investigating the case. However, the NIA Act empowers the Centre to take over from the state police any case with terror linkages.
The MHA had sought the comments of the CBI and Maharashtra and Rajasthan governments earlier in March on whether they are keen to hand over the investigations to the NIA.
The September 2006 Malegaon blasts and May 2007 Mecca Masjid blast cases are being probed by CBI.