For the record, the blast probe involves two separate cases: one linked to the bomb that exploded on the afternoon of May 18 while Friday prayers were on at the mosque and the second involving the bomb that was defused soon after.

The Andhra Pradesh government handed over investigation in the case of the exploded bomb — Crime Number 100/2007 registered with the Hussaini Alam police — to the CBI which re-registered the case on June 9.

However, a Special Investigation Team of the Hyderabad police remains involved in the probe, especially at the local level, through the case of the unexploded bomb.

Also running parallel is a magisterial inquiry ordered by the state government into the police firing on an angry crowd emerging from the mosque following the bomb blast that left five people dead.

A senior police official who did not wish to be named said that the state asked the CBI to investigate the blast case because of the “communal sensitivity involved” and an impression among the minority community of local police bias. In fact, just days before the blasts, senior officers of the Hyderabad Police’s anti-terrorist squad were publicly criticized by the leaders of the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, the dominant political party in the Old City — an ally of the ruling Congress in AP and the UPA government at the Centre — for their hardline approach in tackling terrorism.

Following the blasts, MIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi even warned the government against ATS chief Rajiv Trivedi investigating the case.

... contd.