Seen Clearly In The Crump's Flare

Sadhvi Pragya is a BJP candidate now. In Malegaon, victims dare to hope for justice amid gathering despair.

- Prachi Pinglay-Plumber

MEHJABEEN and Nisar Sayyed voted in Malegaon on April 29, but their eyes are trained on what happens in Bhopal on May 12, where accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, a BJP candidate, is contesting against the Congress’s Digvijay Singh. Nisar, retired father of Sayyed Azhar Nisar Ahmed, who died in the Malegaon blast in September 2008, tried unsuccessfully to prevent Sadhvi Pragya from contesting the election. He filed an intervention petition in the special court where the trial for the blasts is going on. However, the court observed there was no provision to stop an accused from contesting elections.

While Pragya’s candidature, her remarks about her ‘curse’ on late ATS chief Hemant Karkare and that of curing cancer with cow urine has shocked and been deplored, her stout defence by senior BJP leaders is some­thing families of victims are finding hard to believe. “She is an accused and she is being given a ticket. She should be punished, but see what is happening. She is on bail, not acquitted. We are worried because of the way the case is progressing,” says Mehajabeen. IPS and IAS officers’ associations have also protested against Pragya’s “curse” remark and declared support for the late Karkare.

The Malegaon blasts case has seen many ups and downs. In 2006 and 2008, two blasts ripped through Malegaon. Initially, in the 2006 case, some Muslim men were arrested, faced trial and then acquitted. In 2008, under the investi­gation of the then ATS chief Karkare, Pragya, Lt Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit, a serving army officer, and others were arrested for conspiring and executing blasts in Malegaon (in September 2006 and September 2008) and on the Samjhauta Express in February 2007.