Mecca Masjid Blast Case: Resignation of NIA judge who gave verdict rejected

The Andhra Pradesh and Telangana High Court on Thursday rejected the resignation of the Special National Investigation Agency (NIA) judge Ravindra Reddy.

Reddy, who delivered the verdict on the blast case on Monday, resigned hours after giving the judgment in the 2007 Hyderabad blast case. Reddy had submitted his resignation to the Chief Justice of Hyderabad High Court.

However, the court rejected his plea of resignation and Reddy resumed work on Thursday and reported to the Fourth Additional Metropolitan Session Court in Hyderabad, reported The Hindu.

Reddy, after resigning from his position, had gone on a 15-day leave, but the Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan, however, cancelled his leave and asked him to report to work immediately, reported The Indian Express.

Reddy had written a letter to the metropolitan sessions judge and the chief justice of the high court citing personal reasons behind his resignation. Reddy is also under the scrutiny of the High Court’s Vigilance Department following a complaint filed against him by a petitioner in a land dispute case.

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On Wednesday, Asaduddin Owaisi, the chief of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) accused the NIA for failing to prosecute the accused in the 2007 Mecca Masjid Blast case. News agency ANI quoted Owaisi saying, “People call the National Investigation Agency a caged parrot, but I will say that it is blind and deaf also.”

The Mecca Masjid blast case pertains to the bomb blast at Hyderabad’s Mecca Masjid on May 18, 2007, during the time of Friday prayers. The blast killed nine people and injured 58 others. Five of the nine were killed in police firing.

The case, which was initially investigated by the Hyderabad Police was later handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), charged 10 people as accused. Some of the accused belonged to radical Hindu organisation Abhinav Bharat.

The accused in the case were Swamy Aseemanand, Lokesh Sharma, Rajendra Chowdhary, Tejram Parmar, Amith Chowhan and former RSS workers Sandeep Dange, Ramchandra Kalsangra, Devendra Gupta and Sunil Joshi.