New Delhi, March 29: Union Finance Minister and Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley on Friday hit out at the Congress 'for making Hindu terror conspiracy to settle political scores'. Arun Jaitley was referring to the 2007 Samjhauta Express train blast case in which a National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on March 20 acquitted all four accused, including Hindu leader Swami Aseemanand.

Addressing a press conference, Jaitley said the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government made 'innocent people' accused in the Samjhauta blast case in the name of 'so-called Hindu terror'. "Congress coined 'Hindu terror' term and filed cases against innocent people based on fake evidence to create this theory, but in the end, the court dismissed their theory," Jaitley said. Pakistanis Protest Acquittal of 4 in Samjhauta Train Blast.

Taking potshots at Congress President Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who have been visiting temples, Jaitley said the Congress party should apologise to the Hindu community for demonising them. "Those who considered Hindus as terrorists are now trying to prove their devotion towards religion," the union minister said. Jaitley's remarks came a day after the judgement of the NIA court in the Samjhauta blast case was made public. Jaitley, however, did not say why the NIA didn't come with solid evidence or change chargesheet in the last five years of BJP government.

The court, which had acquitted Swami Aseemanand and three others in the Samjhauta Express train blast case, has said there were 'gaping holes' in the prosecution evidence and a dastardly act of violence remained unpunished for want of credible and admissible evidence. The judge said terrorism has no religion and it is generally noticed that a malaise has set in the investigating agencies which coin various terms- Muslim terrorism, Hindu fundamentalism etc. Samjhauta Blast Case: Former DGP Questions NIA’s ‘Complicity’, Holds Agency Accountable For Release of Accused.

"A criminal element, belonging to a particular religion, community or caste, cannot be projected as representative of such particular religion, community or caste and branding the entire community, caste or religion in the name of such criminal element(s) would be totally unjustified," National Investigation Agency (NIA) court special Judge Jagdeep Singh said in his 160-page judgment.

Sixty-eight people, mostly from Pakistan, were killed in February 2007 in the blast on the India-Pakistan train near Panipat in Haryana. The judge said “very strangely” the agency did not a get an identification parade of suspects conducted to establish this. “Thus the investigating agency has lost a very valuable piece of evidence by not conducting investigation properly in this regard,” the judgment said.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 29, 2019 01:23 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).