BJP, Shiv Sena welcome clean chit to sadhvi in blast case

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena have welcomed the clean chit given to sadhvi Pragya Singh and others in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) while Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCO) have cried foul. The BJP said that Congress could not produce proof against the sadhvi for six years, while Congress accused BJP of being biased.

Speaking about the development, Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said, “After the BJP took over, sadhvi got a clean cheat in the case. The former public prosecutor of the case, Rohini Salian, had said that she was asked to go soft. It was very clear that the government and Union home minister Rajnath Singh were in favour of going soft on the accused. The NIA was very biased in removing names of sadhvi and others from the chargesheet despite the late ATS chief Hemant Karkare making a strong case against the accused.”

The BJP, on the other hand, claimed Congress was unable to produce proof. “Congress was in power till 2014 and the arrests happened in 2009. But the Congress government could not produce proof in the court against the accused. Congress had created false impression about Hindu terror among the public before 2009 polls. But it did not help much,” BJP spokesperson Keshav Upadhye said.

Sharing similar sentiments, Sena said that the concept of Hindu terrorism was created by Congress to appease a certain community. “We have been saying from the beginning that sadhvi Pragya Singh was innocent and falsely implicated in the case,” Sena MP Sanjay Raut said.

The NCP termed the clean chit an insult to the late Karkare. “Karkare had got the sadhvi and Colonel Purohit arrested in the case. The BJP and Shiv Sena were busy showering flowers on her. Now that they are in power, the BJP is misusing it. This is an insult to Karkare who was killed in the 26/11 attacks,” NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said.