Jaipur: Former BJP state president Arun Chaturvedi on Monday accused Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and the Congress for not fielding senior lawyers to prosecute the accused in the Jaipur serial bomb blasts case of 2008, leading to the acquittal of four death row convicts following what the high court termed as “flawed and shoddy” investigation.
Addressing a press conference, Chaturvedi alleged, “Jaipur is hurt due to the state government’s negligence as no senior lawyer appeared before the high court to argue such a sensitive case.
Congress spends lakhs of rupees from the state exchequer for the services of senior advocates such as Abhishek Manu Singhvi to argue cases such as the mass resignation (September 25, 2022) of ruling party MLAs or the merger of six BSP MLAs with the Congress. But in the Jaipur serial blast case, it did not do so.”
He also questioned the wisdom of the government in not transferring the case to the NIA.
“In 2008, there were four incidents of bomb blasts and terror attacks in the country — the Samjhauta Express incident, the Malegaon blast, the Hyderabad Mecca Masjid and the Ajmer Dargah blast. After that, the serial bomb blast in Jaipur happened. The investigation into all the earlier four terrorist attacks were transferred to the NIA. But why didn’t the government transfer the Jaipur blast case to the central agency,” he asked.
“At the time of the bomb blast, there was a BJP government in Rajasthan, which took the case to a special court and the court handed the death sentence to the culprits. But when the Congress government came to power, they failed to put up a team to effectively argue the case in high court,” he alleged.
“Only a junior government advocate appeared on behalf of the government for 48 hearings. Why didn’t the additional advocate general or a senior advocate from the Supreme Court appear in the case,” he asked, saying the people wanted to know how the terrorists were allowed to ‘escape’.
He asked the state government to stop pretending and put up a strong team to argue the case in the apex court and get justice for the families of victims.
Addressing a press conference, Chaturvedi alleged, “Jaipur is hurt due to the state government’s negligence as no senior lawyer appeared before the high court to argue such a sensitive case.
Congress spends lakhs of rupees from the state exchequer for the services of senior advocates such as Abhishek Manu Singhvi to argue cases such as the mass resignation (September 25, 2022) of ruling party MLAs or the merger of six BSP MLAs with the Congress. But in the Jaipur serial blast case, it did not do so.”
He also questioned the wisdom of the government in not transferring the case to the NIA.
“In 2008, there were four incidents of bomb blasts and terror attacks in the country — the Samjhauta Express incident, the Malegaon blast, the Hyderabad Mecca Masjid and the Ajmer Dargah blast. After that, the serial bomb blast in Jaipur happened. The investigation into all the earlier four terrorist attacks were transferred to the NIA. But why didn’t the government transfer the Jaipur blast case to the central agency,” he asked.
“At the time of the bomb blast, there was a BJP government in Rajasthan, which took the case to a special court and the court handed the death sentence to the culprits. But when the Congress government came to power, they failed to put up a team to effectively argue the case in high court,” he alleged.
“Only a junior government advocate appeared on behalf of the government for 48 hearings. Why didn’t the additional advocate general or a senior advocate from the Supreme Court appear in the case,” he asked, saying the people wanted to know how the terrorists were allowed to ‘escape’.
He asked the state government to stop pretending and put up a strong team to argue the case in the apex court and get justice for the families of victims.
