Mumbai : With the Congress Party alleging that the government interfered to dilute case against the Malegaon blast accused, the Shiv Sena on Monday hit back at the grand old party and said this episode was politicised during the UPA regime.
Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut told ANI that the manner in which the Congress Party politicised the Malegaon blast, it was not in the interest of the nation.
“Those who are innocent you branded them as Hindu terrorists. Terrorism has no religion or color… The evidence collected by the NIA during the UPA regime was fake. You bring forth the evidence,” he added.
Raut further said the Congress Party must learn a lesson from the matter and realize that whatever was happening in the past will not be repeated.
Blaming the Prime Minister’s Office for the NIA’s U-turn in the 2008 Malegaon blasts case, the Congress Party yesterday demanded a Supreme Court-monitored probe into the matter.
“The NIA (National Investigation Agency) has become ‘NaMo Investigation Agency’,” Congress leader Anand Sharma Sharma said at a press conference.
He alleged that the chargesheet appeared to be aimed at “decimating and demolishing” the “meticulous” probe conducted by Maharashtra ATS then led by slain IPS officer Hemant Karkare.
“There was direct interference from the PMO.from his (PM’s) office, I have said it earlier and everything is being proved, a dirty tricks department is being run. This government is centrally coordinated,” Sharma said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had earlier alleged that the Congress framed Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur in the case.
BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma said the Congress should not do politics over the NIA’s decision but atone for its conspiracy.
“Political comments are not evidence. The then Home Minister used Pak-sponsored terms like Hindu terror and saffron terror. There was no evidence against Pragya Thakur,” he added.
Eight years after she was arrested in the Malegaon blast case, Sadhvi Pragya got a clean chit from the NIA earlier last week.
The NIA on Friday filed a supplementary chargesheet before the court and gave a clean chit to Sadhvi Pragya and five other accused. It also revoked the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act from the case. (ANI)