Pragya being falsely implicated: Gujarat BJP

AHMEDABAD: Pragya Singh Thakur, a Hindu monk arrested for last month's bomb blasts in Gujarat and Maharashtra, is being falsely implicated, Gujarat Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Purushottam Rupala said on Monday.

"Linking Hindu culture with terrorism is wrong and the Congress is making such wrong statements," Rupala said here.

"Calumny is being heaped on Sadhvi Pragya. The Congress and secularists are falsely implicating the Hindu sadhvi. The whole world knows about the evil machinations of the Congress and it seems only you (media) do not know about it."

Pragya Singh Thakur, also known as Sadhvi Purnachetananandgiri, and two others were arrested last week by the Anti-Terrorist Squad of the Maharashtra police on the charge of masterminding the Sep 29 low-intensity blasts in Modasa in north Gujarat and Malegaon in Maharashtra.

Her family is based in Surat in south Gujarat.

Gujarat BJP spokesperson IK Jadeja said: "Our national level leadership has stated in no uncertain terms that Sadhi Pragya has no links with BJP."

Replying to Congress MP Madhusudan Mistry's charge that he had given the names of the Modasa blast suspects to the Gujarat police but police did nothing, Jadeja said it was unfair to hurl such accusations.

"The Gujarat government is trying to get to the root of all this and the police are committed to hunting down the perpetrators of this barbaric action," he said.

"If any member of the BJP is involved in such heinous acts, the party strongly condemns such actions and the BJP will have nothing to do with such persons," Jadeja said.