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Hindu sadhvi slips deeply into
marsh of evidence in
terror blast case
BJP, Shiv Sena come upfront to defend her, marshal lawyers,
say she was framed
WSN Network
New Delhi: An
educated smart pro-saffron ultra right wing Hindu sadhvi Pragya
Singh Thakur has been found to be the main brain behind conceiving
terror attacks in Malegaon but the RSS-BJP parivaar has blatantly
and solidly risen to her support after initial hitch and hiccups.
Reports however
say sadhvi Pragya is learnt to have accepted that she had given her
motorcycle, used in the crime in
Malegaon last
month, to the suspected bombers.
The strategy
seems to be that she will claim to be ignorant about the conspiracy,
and will probably expect that she will be only held responsible for
carelessness.
Because there
are witnesses to the conversation between Sadhvi and absconding
accused Ramji, therefore Sadhvi is also planning to take a plea that
Ramji, when asked by her about the whereabouts of the motorcycle,
nonchalantly told her that the vehicle was used in the
Malegaon attack.
One of the
witnesses, one Dharmendra of Madhya Pradesh, has since recalled the
details of the conversation in a statement he made under Section
164, CrPC, before an Indore court, and which can be used as evidence
in court.
Dharmendra’s
statement can work to sadhvi’s benefit by helping her defense argue
that the role of the former Durga Vahini activist was peripheral,
but can strengthen the cops’ case against other Hindu radicals.
Politically, it can discomfit the BJP which, in a major deviation
from its ‘tough-on-terror’ script, has been insinuating that the
sadhvi is the victim of a frame-up or ‘sponsored investigation’.
It was a lapse
on the part of the plotters which helped cops reach the Sadhvi.
While Ramji and
other suspects took the precaution to erase the chassis number on
the LML Freedom motorcycle to wipe out the evidence of its
ownership, cops managed to retrieve some of the digits on the body
by a scientific process. The investigators were helped by another
lapse by the conspirators: they forgot to erase the 03/03 marking on
its rim — the month and year of manufacture and a vital detail for
the cops to scan the reams of records with the manufacturer. After
that, it was easy to find that the vehicle was sold to Pragya in
August 2008.
When Sadhvi
Pragya Singh Thakur was produced in a Nashik court on Monday, both
BJP and Shiv Sena requisitioned a battery of legal eagle lawyers to
argue the cases. They had also asked their workers to be present in
full strength outside the court.
The same BJP
which had objected to the Jamia Millia Islamia vice-chancellor
talking about arranging legal defense for his students in a terror
case has now been working overtime to ensure Pragya gets “adequate
legal assistance”.
Nashik BJP chief
Vijay Sane was upfront about it while Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut said
there would be “at least four lawyers”.
BJP MP Ravi
Shankar Prasad has said “There is no credible evidence against her.”
5 November
2008
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