Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur who is the formal BJP candidate from Bhopal Lok Sabha seat alleged that she was tortured by the jail officials, who wanted her to admit to “neutralising Muslims” in the Malegaon blast case.
“They wanted me to say that I carried out an explosion and killed Muslims…I was beaten through day and night. They used spiked belts to beat me up in jail after illegal detention…They abused me and threatened me to strip naked,” said Sadhvi Pragya on Thursday, according to news agency ANI.
#WATCH: Alleging torture by jail officials, Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, BJP Lok Sabha candidate from Bhopal, breaks down while addressing the party workers pic.twitter.com/UVUomvmJZ2
— ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019
Sadhvi also broke down during her address to the BJP workers in Bhopal, where the party cadres loudly chanted “jai shri Ram” (glory to Lord Ram).
Sadhvi Pragya is an accused in the Malegaon blast incident. The blast happened in the Maharashtra town in September 2008 and 7 people died in the blast while many others were severely injured.
She was arrested in link-up with the Malegaon blast by the Maharashtra anti-terrorist squad, which investigated the case before the National Investigation Agency (NIA) took over in 2011.
FYI, NIA gave her a clean chit and lodged a closure report in the case against her referring to the withdrawal of statements by witnesses and the lack of physical evidence against her. Needless to say, the NIA court turned down the plea and ordered investigation agency to lodge charge sheet against.
She had been booked under Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act as well as another wrongdoer that included against Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit, Sadhvi Pragya and Sameer Kulkarni. The MCOCA charges against Sadhvi Pragya were dropped by the court in 2017.
Sadhvi Pragya is now out on bail. Before being detained, she was an active member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parisha, which is the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. She was also connected with the Durga Vahini- the women’s wing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.
She joined the Saffron party previously this week and also named the party candidate, reportedly on RSS’ suggestion, from the Bhopal Lok Sabha seat.
Sadhvi Pragya faces senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh at the Bhopal parliamentary seat, which is regarded as BJP stronghold. It should be noted that the party held the Bhopal seat since 1989 Lok Sabha elections.