Panchkula: Swami Aseemanand, acquitted by a Hyderabad court earlier this week in the Mecca Masjid blast, claimed on Saturday his name had been dragged into such cases with a political motive.

The saffron-clad preacher, known for his anti-minority speeches, however, remained silent on Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh's claim to bring him to the state for the upcoming panchayat elections.

"I was politically implicated in the blast cases," Aseemanand said, emerging from a special NIA court in Panchkula, Haryana, after a hearing in the Samjhauta blast case.

Aseemanand is the prime accused in this case.

"Truth had prevailed in the other cases (the Mecca Masjid and the Ajmer Dargah blasts). I have full faith in the judicial system in this trial too," Aseemanand, who was born Naba Kumar Sarkar in Bengal's Hooghly district, said.

Asked about the Bengal BJP leader's comment, Aseemanand declined to answer.

A special NIA court had last year acquitted Aseemanand in the October 2007 Ajmer blast that left three persons dead.

On Monday, a Hyderabad court had acquitted Aseemanand and four others in the May 2007 Mecca Masjid blast that killed nine persons, saying the prosecution had failed to prove "even a single allegation" against them.

The acquittals had provoked fresh allegations that the National Investigation Agency was deliberately diluting cases against Hindu terror suspects.

The Samjhauta Express bombing, on the night of February 18, 2007, killed 68 people, including 42 Pakistanis, when the bi-weekly train that runs between Delhi and Attari at the India-Pakistan border was crossing Panipat. The case was handed over to the NIA three years later.

On Saturday, two witnesses in the case, both judicial officers, were examined. The next hearing has been scheduled for May 4.

Thirteen witnesses from Pakistan, who are yet to appear before the court despite repeated summons, have been asked to be present on August 3.