NIA may take over all Hindu terror cases next week

NEW DELHI: The NIA is likely to take over by next week all seven terror cases involving Hindu extremist groups. These cases — including the Samjhauta, Ajmer, Malegaon, Modasa and Mecca Masjid blasts, besides the Sunil Joshi murder case — are currently being investigated by multiple agencies like the CBI as well as the state police of Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.

“We have taken an in-principle decision to hand over all right-wing terror cases, linked to extremist outfit Abhinav Bharat, to NIA,” a senior Central government official said on Thursday. According to the official, while the CBI has already agreed to transfer the case files to NIA, the process of consultation was on with states of Madhya Pradesh Maharashtra and Rajasthan before the NIA steps in to probe the cases under their respective jurisdiction.

Sources said while Rajasthan and Maharashtra had already indicated their okay for transfer of the cases to NIA, a response was awaited from the Madhya Pradesh government, which is probing the Sunil Joshi murder case. The MP police has already filed a chargesheet in the case and had recently arrested accused Pragya Thakur.

Even if Madhya Pradesh does not send its reply in the requested timeframe of 8-10 days, the NIA Act empowers the Centre to unilaterally transfer the case to the NIA. “It makes sense for one single agency to handle the probe into all cases involving Hindu extremists as they are interlinked and involve elements affiliated to Abhinava Bharat who subscribed to the “eye-foran-eye” approach against Islamic terror.