Explain how Assemanad statement was leaked, CBI asked
By IANSFriday, February 4, 2011
NEW DELHI - A Delhi court Friday asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) how Hindutva activist Swami Assemanand’s confession on his alleged role in the Ajmer blast became public.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sanjay Bansal directed the CBI director, Additional Superintendent of Police T.R. Balaji, to explain how the statement was leaked to Tehelka magazine.
The court was hearing the plea of Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) activist Devender Gupta.
Gupta referred to a series of rulings by the apex court and high courts to demonstrate that the court has all the requisite powers to order a probe into the leakage of Aseemanand’s confession made to a magisterial court.
Gupta pointed out that an offence of a serious nature had been committed with the leakage of the confession made by Aseemanand accepting that Hindu activists were to blame for a string of bombings in the country.
Gupta, arrested for his role in the 2008 Ajmer Dargah blast, is currently lodged in Delhi. He sought action against Balaji and Tehelka magazine’s owner, publisher and editor Tarun Tejpal.
The CBI has been asked to file its response by Feb 15.
The confession was recorded in Delhi by a metropolitan magistrate Dec 18.
The RSS functionary claimed that the leakage of the statement will not only cause “prejudice” to his right to fair trial but had given a handle to Pakistan.
“It is most appropriate that a report be called from the CBI as to how the said confessional statement has been leaked to the media. Therefore, I defer the order on the (Gupta’s) application,” the magistrate said.
