Was the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad or ATS putting pressure on Sadhvi Pragya Singh to implicate Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in the Malegaon bomb blast case? The scepticism about her claim begins from an affidavit she had submitted to the court in 2008.
In this affidavit, filed to complain about her alleged torture in the custody of ATS, nowhere had Pragya Singh mentioned PM Modi and Yogi Adityanath.
On July 31, all seven accused in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case, including Pragya Singh, were acquitted by a special court in Mumbai for lack of evidence.
Pragya Singh was accused of being the mastermind of the bombing plot.
According to the ATS, the two-wheeler in which the bomb was planted, which exploded killing 6 people and injuring 101 people, belonged to her.
Two days after the court order, Pragya Singh spoke to reporters outside the court in Mumbai and created a sensation by saying that ATS officials were harassing her to implicate Yogi and PM Modi.
This was the first time she made this allegation in last 17 years. Earlier, neither Pragya Singh, nor her family or lawyers had ever mentioned this.
On November 17, 2008, Singh had filed an affidavit before the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Nashik, after her arrest in the Malegaon bomb blast case.
In the affidavit, she detailed how in October 2008, when she was in Surat, Maharashtra ATS contacted her and brought her to Mumbai along with one of her disciples, Bhimbhai Pasricha, on the "pretext of questioning".
The ATS officer, she claimed, had told her that she would be released after questioning in Mumbai, but she was harassed at the ATS's Kalachowki office in Mumbai and questions were asked about her alleged role in the Malegaon blast.
According to the affidavit, the torture began before she was formally arrested.
Pragya Singh alleged that her disciple Pasricha was asked by ATS officials to beat her with sticks and belts. When he refused, the ATS officials started beating her. To avoid being beaten, Pasricha also thrashed Pragya.
But since Pasricha was just going through the motions, the ATS officers themselves started beating her, she said.
The officials were also abusing her and her Guru and questioned her character. Her condition became so bad that she had to be admitted to the hospital. She was so mentally broken that she started thinking about suicide, she alleged in the affidavit.
In the eight-page document, she gave details of her interrogation by the ATS and her conversations with her lawyers and sought an inquiry into why she was illegally detained before her arrest. She also demanded action against the ATS officials who tortured her during interrogation.
But there is no mention of PM Modi or Yogi Adityanath anywhere in the entire affidavit.
Besides, even during the trial that lasted for nearly 17 years, Pragya Singh did not mention this.
In 2019, she contested on a BJP ticket from Bhopal, but even during the election campaign, she did not mention PM Modi and Yogi.
Her allegations are now viewed with suspicion. Some speculate that she made such a statement to gain the Prime Minister's support.
BJP sources revealed that in the last five years, the BJP's top leadership was angry with Pragya Singh for some of the things she said, and she was denied ticket for the Lok Sabha elections in 2024.
Now, it is being seen as her attempt to come closer to the BJP leadership.
Most of the officials associated with the investigation of the Malegaon blast have retired and are avoiding the media. A senior official, who did not wish to be named, said Pragya Singh was lying. Yogi Adityanath and PM Modi had nothing to do with the matter, he said.
(Jitendra Dixit is an author who writes on crime and conflicts.)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author.
