Jabalpur: Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel Thursday claimed that Malegaon blast accused and BJP candidate from Bhopal Lok Sabha seat Pragya Singh Thakur stabbed a man in 2001.
Thakur’s conduct did not become of a `Sadhvi’ (ascetic or holy woman), the Congress leader said, speaking at a press conference here.
“Pragya Thakur has a connection with our Chhattisgarh. Her brother-in-law worked at a warehouse in Bilaigarh (in Balodabazar district),” Baghel said, when asked whether the BJP was playing the ‘Hindutva card’ by fielding her.
“She used to carry a knife and stabbed a young man named Shailendra Devagan in the chest with a knife in Bilaigarh in 2001,” Baghel said.
“Pragya also used to indulge in fights, and from the beginning her conduct was like that of a habitual criminal and not like that of a Sadhvi,” the chief minister said.
Thakur is currently out on bail.
Six people were killed and over 100 injured in a bomb blast at Malegaon, a communally sensitive textile town in north Maharashtra’s Nashik district, September 29, 2008.
The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad arrested Thakur and others in the case, alleging they were part of a Hindu extremist group which carried out the blast.
The National Investigation Agency later gave Thakur a clean chit, but the trial court in Mumbai did not discharge her. She is facing trial under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and Indian Penal Code sections.
PTI