2007 Ajmer dargah blast accused arrested from Gujarat; he was on the run for 11 years

A 2007 Ajmer dargah bomb blast accused, who has been on the run since the last 11 years, was arrested on Sunday, November 25, by the ATS from Bharuch in Gujarat.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is probing the case, had announced a reward of ₹2 lakh on head of the accused, identified as Suresh Nair.

As per the NIA, Nair had allegedly supplied a bomb to the planters at the famous sufi shrine in Rajasthan and was also present at the spot, the Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) said in a statement.

Three persons were killed and 17 others injured in the blast that occurred on October 11, 2007.

After he was apprehended from Bharuch, Nair was shifted to Ahmedabad for further investigation, the ATS said.

He is a resident of Thasara in Kheda district of Gujarat.

"Officials of Gujarat ATS had received a credible information that Suresh Nair will visit Shuklatirth in Bharuch in near future, following which a close watch was kept at the place," the agency said, adding that Nair was apprehended from the spot.

He will be handed over to the NIA, it said.

A special NIA court in Jaipur had acquitted the key accused, activist Swami Aseemanand and six others, by giving them the “benefit of doubt” in March 2017. Among those acquitted were Harshad Solanki, Lokesh Sharma, Mehul Kumar, Mukesh Vasani, Bharat Bhai and Chandrashekar.

Three others were handed life imprisonment. Devendra Gupta, Bhavesh Patel and Sunil Joshi were convicted under various sections of the IPC, Explosive Substances Act and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

However, in the last week of August, Patel of Bharuch and Gupta of Ajmer were granted bail by the Rajasthan High Court after their lawyers argued that the men had been convicted on the basis of “human probability… circumstantial evidence… conjectures”.