Within hours after a special anti-terror court acquitted Hindutva preacher Swami Aseemanand and four others in the 11-year-old Mecca Masjid blast case, the judge resigned.

Though K Ravinder Reddy, the special judge for NIA cases, tendered his resignation, citing “personal” reasons, the stunning move has been dubbed as “intriguing” by a political party.

A powerful blast, triggered by remote control, had ripped through the over four centuries-old mosque here during an assembly of devotees on May 18, 2007 when they had gathered for Friday prayers, killing nine people and wounding 58.

AIMIM Chief and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi, meanwhile, tweeted, “Judge who gave acquittal to all accused in Mecca Masjid Blast RESIGNS very intriguing and I am surprised with the Lordship decision”, amid questions over the functioning of the National Investigation Agency(NIA).

“Prosecution (NIA) could not prove even a single allegation against any of the accused and all of them stand acquitted,” media reports quoted J P Sharma, the counsel for 66-year-old Assemanand, as saying after the verdict.

The media was not allowed in the courtroom where the judgement was pronounced in the high-profile case, which was dubbed by the then UPA government as one of “Hindu terror”, a term that riled saffron organisations, including the BJP.

“He has sent the resignation letter to MSJ(Metropolitan Sessions Judge)…he has cited personal grounds and it has nothing to do with todays verdict in the Mecca Masjid blast case,” PTI quoted the senior judicial officer as saying.

Reddy, had apparently taken the decision to resign sometimes back itself, the officer reportedly said.

Soon after the verdict, the NIA had come in for attack by oppostion parties, including the Congress and AIMIM, the report said.