NAGPUR: The Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Wednesday virtually gave a clean chit to sadhvi Pragyasingh Thakur in the Malegaon blast case and pledged its support to her. It alleged that the Centre and state governments, led by the Congress, were doing grave injustice to her.
“There is practically no evidence to suggest her hand in the blasts, but the ATS wants to extract a confession from her by subjecting her to brain-mapping and narco-analysis tests again and again,” VHP general secretary Vyankatesh Abdeo said at a press conference in Nagpur.
He said the sadhvi was never a member of the VHP. But, it will not tolerate a “vicious crusade” against Hindu saints, he said. The VHP is planning a country-wide agitation against her arrest.
Abdeo said the ATS now suspects Mahant Asimanand of Dangs in Gujarat to be involved in the blast. But the agency has no evidence to prove it, he said. “It smacks of a deliberate assault on the entire fraternity of Hindu saints.”
Abdeo saw the framing of the sadhvi and others in the case as a “deliberate political conspiracy” to appease Muslims for votes ahead of the elections in five states and the upcoming general elections. This is a strong conspiracy against the Hindus to prove that Muslim groups are not the only ones engaged in terrorism, he said.
“Why is there no action against Muslim terrorists? Why is the Centre not hanging Afzal Guru? Because the government knows if you do that, you disappoint Muslims and lose a huge chunk of votes,” he said.
He questioned the ATS’s decision to subject the sadhvi to narco-analysis test for a “second time”. Abdul Kareem Telgi had named Sharad Pawar and Chhagan Bhujbal in his narco test, but the two political leaders were not even questioned, he said. The ATS, he alleged, was trying to extract a confession by harassing and torturing her.
Abdeo, who is in charge of Maharashtra’s VHP unit, said the Congress-led governments at the Centre and in the state were supporting terrorists. “The Centre and state government are abetting and aiding terrorists, but maligning the entire Hindu community and its saints,” he alleged.
