NASHIK: A Magistrate's Court premises here on Monday turned into a virtual saffron camp as it was thronged by activists of Shiv Sena and BJP who shouted slogans in support of Sadhvi Pragya Thakur and others accused in the Malegaon blast case.
Security personnel in strength were deployed as the ATS produced the eight arrested persons in the court for extension of their judicial custody.
As the blue Police van carrying Sadhvi and others neared the court, entire police arrangement went haywire. Hundreds of Shiv Sena and BJP workers surrounded the van and raised slogans in support of the accused.
Throughout the hearing, the Hindi and Marthi slogans --"Pragya Thakur tum age badho hum tumhare saath hain (Pragya Thakur you march ahead, we are with you)"-- kept reverberating in the court.
"She has been wrongly accused in the blast case to defame the Hindus. Sadhvi symbolises Hindu women and her arrest is an attack on our mothers and sisters," said a shiv sainik protester.
With a large team of electronic media present there, the activists become more agitated as the cameras were focused on them.
Outside the court, posters of Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackerey, its president Uddhav Thackerey and BJP stalwarts-- former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and leader of opposition Lal Krishna Advani-- came up in support of Sadhvi.
Many other posters of saffron brigade leaders were pasted on the walls in the area surrounding the court.
BJP leaders in their campaigns have repeatedly issued statements about the motives of the ATS in arresting Sadhvi.
BJP President Rajnath Singh had in one of the election campaigns said that the entire case was politically motivated.
"I have not seen so much activity in the court in the recent past. Whatever be the case but I feel she (Pragya) has been wrongly implicated by the Congress government. How can a Sadhvi plan a bombing?," a beetle-leaf(pan) shop owner said.
