Malegaon Blasts: Ramji Was Like a Brother to Me Says Sadhvi Pragya

Absolving herself of blame, Thakur said she didn’t attend any meeting to plan the attack.

The Malegaon blast took place in 2008, (Photo: Reuters)

Speaking to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, who has been acquitted in the 2008 Malegaon blast case said that Ramchandra Kalsangra (alias Ramji) is like “her brother.” He allegedly asked her whether he could take her bike, and so she “gave it to him,” according to a Times of India report.

Absolving herself of blame, Thakur said that she didn’t attend any meeting for the planning of the attack for which she was arrested. She claims that she was framed by the police.

Her statement is a part of the chargesheet filed by the NIA on Friday, which sought to drop Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) charges against the accused and give Thakur and five others a clean chit due to lack of evidence.

The LML Freedom motorbike, which belongs to Thakur, was with Ramji for almost a couple of years before the September 2008 blast, according to the NIA. Witnesses claimed that the bike was sent for repairs regularly before the bomb was planted on it.

There are reliable witnesses who have said that Thakur was never seen with the bike for a very long time. In her case, the ATS claimed that it was she who handed over the bike to Ramji before the blast, which could not be proved.

NIA Officer

12-13 additional witness statements were cited by the NIA chargesheet, which were allegedly ignored by the Maharashtra ATS. These include five Army officers who discredited the ATS’s RDX theory and revealed that sub-inspector Shekhar Bagde of the ATS had planted RDX traces in the house of retired Army officer Sudhakar Chaturvedi.

The fresh testimony of the five Army officers and other additional witnesses led the NIA to trash the ATS’s theory of meetings attended by Thakur and theft of RDX from the Army.