Hindutva leader and former BJP MP Pragya Thakur has accused investigators of trying to coerce her into implicating Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat in the 2008 Malegaon blast case.
Thakur, who was acquitted on Thursday together with Lt. Col. Prasad Shrikant Purohit and five others by a special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court, made the sensational accusation soon after the verdict was delivered.
Her statement comes after the disclosure by the court that one of the witnesses in the case, who went on to turn hostile, had also accused being coerced to frame Yogi Adityanath and four top RSS functionaries, including Indresh Kumar.
Fuel to the fire came in the form of a claim from former Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) officer Mehboob Mujawar that top officers in the squad had directed him to arrest RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on one occasion. Mujawar reportedly said he had declined the directive, claiming it was part of a larger scheme to push the investigation towards forming a "saffron terror" story.
While the court had rejected Mujawar's claims at the trial, he reiterated the charges on Friday, asserting that the intention was to willfully mislead the probe.
The court ruling and latest revelations have sparked controversies over the genuineness of the investigation into the 2008 blast, which claimed six lives and injured more than 100 in Maharashtra's Malegaon town.
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