Samjhauta blast probe established Congress’ 'political theory of Hindu terror': Arun Jaitley

Days after the acquittal of Aseemanand and three others in the 2007 Samjhauta blast case, Union minister Arun Jaitley on Friday said the probe has focussed on establishing the Congress' "political theory of Hindu terror" and the Opposition party has smeared Hindus on the basis of "forged" evidence for political benefits. Naba Kumar Sarkar alias Swami Aseemanand, Kamal Chauhan, Rajinder Chaudhary and Lokesh Sharma were acquitted by a special court in Haryana's Panchkula on March 20.

Coming down heavily on the Opposition Congress Jaitley said people cannot tolerate an entire community being labelled as terrorists, and, therefore, the party should apologise.

Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, Jaitley claimed that Congress had coined the term 'Hindu terror' for political gains, saying "They filed cases based on fake evidence to create the theory, but it is upon the court to decide in the end.

"The court has said it (Samjhauta case) is a case of no evidence and hence, those who coined the term 'Hindu terror' are now showing devotion," the finance minister said in an apparent reference to Congress president Rahul Gandhi and AICC General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi.

"To establish their theory of Hindu terror, a wrong set of people were framed; innocent people lost their lives (in the blast) and the real culprits were not caught," he added.

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"Who will take accountability for this? It rests with the leadership of the Congress. The society will never forgive them," the BJP leader, accompanied by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and party’s media head Anil Baluni, asked while interacting with media this afternoon.

Innocents were killed in the blast but investigators focussed not on real culprits but on establishing the political theory of Hindu terrorism, he said, alleging that the Congress gave the slogan of "Hindu terrorism" for its "vote bank" politics. In other cases also evidence were forged to probe this theory, he added, for political benefits.

The finance minister said the US state department kept telling India about terrorists involved in blasts and gave their names as well but that line of investigation was not pursued.

There were reports that the US state department suspected terror outfit LeT's role in the blasts. To a question about the then home secretary RK Singh, who is now a BJP leader and Union minister, echoing the Hindu terror view, Jaitley said it is not important what bureaucrats said as such decisions are taken at political level.

The blast in Samjhauta Express between India and Pakistan took place near Panipat in Haryana on February 18, 2007, when the train was on its way to Attari, the last railway station on the Indian side.