'Healthy enough to contest': Malegaon terror victim's father urge NIA to bar Sadhvi

Mumbai, Apr 18: An application has been filed before the NIA court here against Malegaon blast accused Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, seeking a bar on her contesting the Lok Sabha poll.

The BJP has declared her candidature from Bhopal seat in Madhya Pradesh.

The applicant has questioned Thakur’s candidature citing that she had got bail on the ground of her poor health, but she is “healthy enough to fight elections.”

“That intervener would further submit that Sadhvi Pragya Thakur got bail on health ground but clearly healthy enough to fight elections in the crippling summer heat which means she has misguided the court,” says applicant Sayyed Bilal in his petition, filed in the NIA court on Thursday.

NIA will file its reply on April 23 when the court is also likely to hear the petition.

Nisar Ahmed Sayyed Bilal lost his son Sayyed Azhar Nisar Ahmed on the spot in Malegaon blast that took place on September 29, 2008.

The applicant states that “he came to know by electronic, print and social media that Sadhvi Pragya Thakur has joined the BJP and is going to contest parliamentary elections from Bhopal seat.”

The petitioner has submitted that Thakur was “enlarged on conditional bail and she is not attending hearing of this court on the pretext that she is unwell and she is a ‘breast cancer patient.’ But on the contrary, she has been seen participating in various programmes and giving objectionable and instigating speeches since her release from the jail.”

Thakur has “flayed her duty to the court under false pretense but has submitted herself to the duty of being a parliamentarian. Sadhvi Pragya Thakur has taken a casual outlook to the trial and it casts serious doubt on her non-availability for the trial and the reasons so told.”

The petitioner has further submitted that “during bail hearing in the Bombay High Court Sadhvi Pragya Thakur had filed written statement in support of her health and claimed that she cannot even walk without support, her contention and the High Court’s observations are being reproduced here for kind perusal of this court.”

“Sadhvi Pragya Thakur got bail on health ground but is clearly healthy enough to fight elections in the crippling summer heat which means she has misguided the court,” applicant Sayyed Bilal said in the application.

“Sadhvi Pragya Thakur may be asked to attend court proceeding here in Mumbai and is barred to contest the election as trial is still in progress and the petition of cancellation of bail is sub-judice before the Supreme Court,” the application added.

Thakur is among seven accused facing trial in Malegaon blast case, in which six people were killed and a dozen others were injured when a bomb placed on a motorcycle exploded in Maharashtra’s Malegaon on September 29, 2008.

Polling in Madhya Pradesh will be held in the last four phases of elections, ending on May 19. The counting of votes will take place on May 23.