Panchkula, February 12
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has made another arrest in the 2007 Samjhauta Express twin blasts case. Kamal Chauhan (28) was arrested by agency sleuths from Depalpur town in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. Chauhan had allagedly planted a bomb in the trans-border train along with another accused Lokesh Sharma, already under arrest.

This is the third arrest in the case. Swami Aseemanand is also in custody for his involvement in the case.

Sources said Chauhan had also participated in “meetings” in Gujarat and Nagpur, where the conspiracy was hatched. The NIA would now produce Chauhan before the special NIA court in Panchkula on Monday, sources said.

On June 20 last year, the NIA had filed a chargesheet against Swami Aseemanand, Sunil Joshi (now dead), Lokesh Sharma, Sandeep Dange alias Parmanand, Ramchandra Kalsangra alias Ramji alias Vishnu Patel (still absconding) for hatching a criminal conspiracy, which resulted in blasts in the train near Dewana railway station in Panipat district on February 28, 2007. It resulted in the death of 68 persons.

A majority of those killed in the blast were Pakistanis. The agency is also investigating the role of Sadhvi Pragya Thakur and RSS leader Indresh Kumar in the blasts.

The NIA had already announced cash rewards for information leading to the arrest of the three key suspects. A reward of Rs 10 lakh each was announced for information leading to the arrest of Dange and Kalsangra.

The NIA had also announced a reward of Rs 2 lakh for information leading to the arrest of Ashwini Chauhan.

Earlier, Swami Aseemanand had confessed to his involvement in the case, but later retracted his confession and said he was being falsely implicated.