NIA shifts back Sunil Joshi murder case to MP

The Sunil Joshi murder case, which NIA fought for months on end to take over, claiming it was an important link to all Hindu right-wing terror cases, has been quietly shifted back to Madhya Pradesh after the central agency said it found no evidence of a terror angle to it.

Joshi, an RSS ‘Pracharak’, who had been <g data-gr-id="21">chargesheeted</g> by NIA in connection with Samjhauta Express train blast of 2007, was considered an important link to alleged acts of Hindu right-wing terror. He was shot dead on December 29, <g data-gr-id="18">2007</g> when he was walking back to his hideout in <g data-gr-id="22">Chuna</g> <g data-gr-id="23">Khadan</g> locality in Dewas town of Madhya Pradesh.

NIA suspected Joshi had a role in Samjhauta Express blasts, besides explosions at Malegaon, Ajmer Dargah and Mecca Masjid (Hyderabad), and insisted that the case be handed over to it.

Under the UPA dispensation, NIA had filed several applications before courts in Madhya Pradesh seeking directions to the state police to hand over the investigation to it. The MP Police, after having closed the Joshi murder case earlier, reopened it and filed a charge sheet in Dewas, alleging Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, arrested in the Malegaon blasts case, and four others had murdered him, fearing he might expose the entire conspiracy from Samjhauta to Ajmer blasts.