MP: Sadhvi Pragya, 7 others acquitted in Sunil Joshi murder case
The accused were acquitted by the district court for lack of evidence.
Dewas: Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur was acquitted along with seven others by a local court in the murder case of RSS parcharak Sunil Joshi on Thursday, due to lack of evidence.
First Additional District and Sessions Judge Rajiv M Apte acquitted Pragya, Harsh Solanki, Vasudev Parmar, Ramcharan Patel, Anandraj Kataria, Lokesh Sharma, Rajendra Choudhary, and Jitendra Sharma, saying there was not enough evidence against the accused to nail them in the murder.
Joshi was shot dead on December 29, 2007. Initially, the probe had hit a dead-end, but later the arrest of a person in Rajasthan led the district police to name Pragya and others as accused in the case.
The trial was shifted to the Special NIA Court in Bhopal from the district court a few years ago. However, the matter was shifted back to the district court as it was a murder case and doesn't come under the ambit of NIA, which is an anti-terror agency.
Joshi was once a close aide of Pragya, but they had a subsequent fall-out.
Pragya is in judicial custody in connection with terror cases. She was not present in the court here when the verdict was announced.
After hearing the verdict, Anandraj and Vasudev, who were present in the court along with relatives and supporters, broke down.