On March 20, 2019, an Indian court acquitted all four people accused of planning the Samjhota Express bombings in 2007, including main accused Swami Aseemanand.
The court concluded that the investigating agency failed to prove the conspiracy charge and that the accused deserve benefit of the doubt, despite the fact that India’s investigation agency NIA had said that eight people had conspired and propounded a theory of 'bomb ka badla bomb' as they were ‘upset’ over previous bomb attacks on Hindu temples.
Not only that, Swami Aseemanand himself admitted in 2010 that he was involved in several terrorist activities, including the Samjhota Express one. Swami said he told everyone that Bomb should be responded with a bomb and chose to attack Samjhoota Express because ‘it was mostly used by Muslims’.
A ‘special’ Indian court giving ‘benefit of the doubt’ to a man who has confessed to being involved in terrorist activities raises a lot of questions regarding the country’s justice system.