National Investigation Agency (NIA) found no grounds to prosecute Sadhvi Pragya, who is contesting elections from Bhopal constituency. Last year in October, the court framed terror charges against Sadhvi in the 2008 Malegaon blast case. In December 2017, the court had rejected discharge pleas of the accused which also included Sadhvi Pragya.
The NIA, on Tuesday, replied to the plea that involved a request to bar of Sadhvi Pragya from contesting elections. The NIA said that there were not enough evidences to prosecute her. Sadhvi, in her defence, said that there is no provision of law that bars her from contesting elections. She also mentioned that the plea put up by the liberals and opposition is baseless and frivolous. She said that this is being done to seek attention and the opposition is doing all this for the sake of publicity.
Nisar Bilal, son of Sayyed Ahmed who died in the blasts, urged the NIA court to stop Pragya from contesting the elections. He based his plea on the fact that trials were still going on in a case that involved her and this makes her candidature controversial. Sadhvi is out on bail. She is contesting on BJP ticket from Bhopal. NIA as well as Sadhvi submitted their replies in front of special NIA judge VS Padalkar.
This has disappointed the liberal brigade which tried its best to bash and pressurize the BJP for fielding Pragya in Bhopal. As the NIA has now said that it doesn’t have enough evidences to prosecute her, it is difficult for the left liberals to push their agenda and propaganda forward against Sadhvi.
NIA, on Tuesday, filed a four page reply to the plea of Nisar Bilal in the court, mentioning that it had no jurisdiction in the matter of contesting and it did not want to comment on the issue as it was related to election and Election Commission. NIA said, “It (whether she can contest) can be decided by the EC only,”
NIA further noted, “It was pertinent to mention that in the supplementary chargesheet dated May 13, 2016, NIA has recommended the prosecution against 10 accused….and recommended the evidences against Pragya and…(five other) were not found sufficient and such prosecution against them was not maintainable”
NIA’s statement comes as a firm message for those who are hell-bent on seeing Sadhvi Pragya getting barred from contesting. The liberal brigade has been an ardent supporter of the plea to ban Thakur from contesting in the Lok Sabha election. The liberals however remained quiet when she faced atrocities during her time in the prison. Sadhvi Pragya faced merciless torture that led to severe medical conditions including paralysis. While the liberals turned a blind eye to these issues, they have been lobbying for Sadhvi’s ban from the Lok Sabha elections.