Ajmer blast accused files fresh plea against CBI, Tehelka

In the application filed before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sanjay Bansal, RSS functionary Devender Gupta sought exclusion of the provisions of the P C Act and pleaded for registration of a criminal case instead.

The court fixed tomorrow for pronouncing the order on the plea.

Gupta is currently lodged in Ajmer Central Jail in the dargah blast case.

"It is appropriate in the interest of justice to direct the police to register a criminal case and investigate the same immediately, excluding the provisions of the PC Act," the application filed by Gupta's counsel Anupam S Sharma said.

Gupta, against whom a charge sheet was filed by Rajasthan Anti-Terrorist Squad in Ajmer
Blast case, had sought FIR registration against CBI's Additional SP T R Balaji and owner, publisher and editor of Tehelka magazine Tarun Tejpal.

It was alleged that Aseemanand's confessional statement recorded by a magistrate under section 164 of the CrPC was leaked by CBI to the magazine in violation of the law.

"The media coverage indicates a well-defined leakage that is authored with a design to insulting the judicial process... The leakage of court proceedings opened an additional forum of media trial to prejudice the mind of the court in violation of the rights of the accused in custody," Gupta's lawyers had submitted.

The leakage of Aseemanand's statement had given a handle to neighbouring Pakistan to press for their improper demands, they had said.

The ATS had arrested Gupta, allegedly linked to a radical group Abhinav Bharat, and two others -- Chandrashekhar and Lokesh -- from Madhya Pradesh last year.

Later, three more suspects Harshad Bhai Solanki, also involved in Best Bakery case of Vadodara and were absconding since 2004, and Mukesh Vasani were arrested from Gujarat in the dargah blast case.

59-year-old Aseemanand, prime accused in Hyderabad's Mecca Masjid blast case, in his confessional statement had said he and several other Sangh activists played a direct role in Malegaon, Samjhauta Express, Ajmer and Mecca blasts.

Sources in the investigating agencies had said Aseemanand had given a detailed description of the involvement of the activists and self-styled spiritual leaders in several terror attacks across the country during the last three years.

The statement, recorded in camera, was published in the magazine.