Close to a week after a Hyderabad court granted conditional bail to Swami Aseemanand, one of the accused in the Mecca Masjid blast, he walked out of the Chanchalguda Central Jail on Friday.
Last week, the Fourth Metropolitan Sessions court directed him to furnish two sureties of Rs 50,000 each and not to leave Hyderabad without prior permission.
On May 18, 2007, members belonging to the Hindu militant outfit Abhinav Bharat had allegedly placed two bombs in the Mecca Masjid, considered one of holiest Muslim sites in the city, during Friday prayers when thousands of people had gathered.
Nine persons were killed in the blast that shook the historic mosque in the city.
As news of the blast spread, tension escalated in Old City, especially the areas around Charminar, with many people taking to the streets, and turning into vandalising mobs, who clashed with the police.
The police resorted to lathi-charges, teargas shells, and firing in the air. Five more people were killed in subsequent police firing near the mosque.
Jatin Chatterjee aka Swami Aseemanand was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation in 2010.
Earlier associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, he is considered an ideologue of Abhinav Bharat, an extremist organisation involved in the Malegaon and Ajmer blasts.
On March 8, a National Investigation Agency Special Court in Jaipur in Rajasthan held three persons guilty in the 2007 Ajmer blast case, but acquitted Aseemanand and six others.
Two of the three convicts were handed life imprisonment. One convict has since died.
Aseemanand's bail also enraged several Muslim leaders in Hyderabad.
Calling it 'Hindutva appeasement', Hyderabad MP and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi had told the Times of India, "This is a well-planned move by the Narendra Modi government. With bail to accused in the Mecca Masjid blast case, the government's claims of fighting terror seem shallow."
Alleging that the NIA was "suppressing the truth and making the judiciary helpless in delivering justice," MBT leader Amjed Ullah Khan also said that this "exposed the political agenda of the Sangh Parivar."
IANS inputs