National Investigation Agency is "not going soft" on any right wing terror cases: Sharad Kumar

NEW DELHI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is "not going soft" on any right wing terror cases and testimony to that is that trials in all such cases, except Malegaon blasts of 2008 in which trial is yet to start, “is progressing very well”, NIA DG Sharad Kumar told ET on Thursday.

Kumar said that the agency will also soon take a call on filing an appeal in the SC against the bail granted by Punjab and Haryana HC in the Samjhauta blasts case to Swami Aseemanand. Kumar told ET that legal opinion on this matter from NIA’s legal cell is expected next week.

"We did not delay this matter too…the HC judgment was unavailable for almost eight months. We got it in May and immediately sent it for legal opinion on the possibility of filing an appeal," he said.

Asked if NIA intended to file an appeal in-principle, he said: “I will wait for the opinion.” Kumar was reacting to an interview given by NIA Special Public Prosecutor Rohini Salian in which she alleged an NIA officer had asked her to go soft in the Malegaon case. Kumar said Salian’s claim was “untrue” as trial in the Malegaon case was yet to begin, and essentially the work of the Special PP only starts during the trial.

“Trials in the Samjhauta blasts case, the Mecca masjid blasts and the Ajmer blasts are progressing very well. So, where’s the question of going soft in any case?” Aseemanand is still in jail in Haryana as he has not got bail in other cases like the Mecca masjid and Ajmer blasts, Kumar said.