The National Investigating Agency (NIA) on Friday filed a supplementary chargesheet before the court and gave a clean chit to Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and five other accused and also revoked the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) in the case.
Though the NIA has given a clean chit to Sadhvi Pragya, she was not discharged from the case immediately because she would be required to file a discharge application through her lawyer as the ATS had arrested her and its chargesheet against her is already on record. Another option for her release would be to wait for the court to take a suo motu decision on the basis of the chargesheet filed by the ATS which has said that the prosecution against her and five others is not maintainable.
Analysing evidence against Sadhvi Pragya, the NIA has said that though a LML Freedom motorcycle was used in the blast, it was evident and on record that the said motorcycle was in the possession of accused Ram Chandra Kalsangra alias Ramji and was being used by him much before the blast. According to NIA statements of four witnesses and the record in the register of the garage where the said motorcycle was parked, Ramji was in possession of the motorcycle.
The revocation of MCOCA also became helpful for Sadhvi Pragya because the co-accused Sudhakar Dhar Dwivedi in his confessional statement recorded under MCOCA had stated that in July 2008, Sadhvi had introduced Ramji and Sandeep Dange to him in Indore circuit house and had said they were her reliable men. Few months later, when he again visited Indore, Ramji and Dange had met him again and discussed the Indore riots.
According to his confession at that time, Sadhvi had spoken to him on telephone.
The statement said she had requested Col Prasad Purohit to provide explosives for the safety of Hindus, but as he was not responding, had then asked Dwivedi to tell Purohit to provide explosives to Ramji and Dange. On her request, Dwivedi had spoken to Purohit on phone and told him about the demand for explosives, but Purohit had asked him not to discuss such matters over the phone and asked him to meet up in Ujjain.
“It is evident that the accused Dwivedi retracted from his confessional statement in front of the magistrate,” the NIA stated in its chargesheet.
It further stated, “Since provisions of MCOCA are not being invoked in this chargesheet by NIA, this confessional statement does not have any evidentiary value.”
Speaking about a witness who had said Sadhvi Pragya had offered to provide men, when Purohit discussed of revenge against Muslims by carrying out blasts in their areas, especially Malegaon, the NIA said that when they re-examined this witness he said he never visited Bhopal and never attended Abhinav Bharat’s meeting in Bhopal. In fact, the ATS took him to a Ram Mandir in Bhopal. Two other witnesses also spoke about a discussion to carry out bomb blast in this meeting, but as per NIA, these witnesses again recorded their statements before the magistrate and said that no such thing was discussed in this meeting.
Another witness had spoken about a meeting between Sadhvi and Ramji at Ujjain in which Ramji confessed about carrying out the 2008 Malegaon blast. However, the chargesheet said, “It is pertinent to mention that this witness had lodged a complaint with the magistrate at Indore on November 26, 2008 stating that he was illegally detained and tortured by the ATS and they forced him to give that statement.” It also said, “There is every possibility that he may also retract from his earlier statement.”
A co-accused Rakesh Dhawde in his confession had also said that Col Purohit had told him that he had arranged and handed over RDX to Sadhvi and his men Ramji and Dange. However, during further investigation by the NIA, Dhawde partially retracted his confession and denied that Col Purohit said anything about giving RDX to anybody. The NIA has also said it is not relying on confession because MCOCA has not been applied.
Speaking about another witness who had said that Col Purohit had once told him that he himself, Ramji and Sudhakar Chaturvedi fitted the IED in the motorcycle provided by Sadhvi, the NIA said this witness had lodged a complaint against the ATS in the Mahrashtra Human Rights Commission stating the ATS had forcefully recorded his statement. He also retracted his statement. According to the NIA, evidence of two other witnesses was not sufficient to prosecute Sadhvi. “On evaluation of the above evidences against Sadhvi, it is submitted that the evidences on record against her are not sufficient to prosecute her as all the witnesses have already retracted their statements. Thus no case is made out against her,” concluded the NIA.
