Congress corners Centre over Malegaon blast U-turn

Asserting that the sudden turnaround by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the 2008 Malegaon blasts case has only made matters murkier, the Congress on Monday trained its guns on the Prime Minister Narendra Modi led-NDA government and asked it to cite a single incident of serious terrorist case where charges were dropped by the investigative agencies before the law could take its course.

Congress spokesperson Abhishekh Manu Singhvi told ANI that after NIA gave a clean chit to Sadhvi Pragya and other saffron leaders India has become a laughing stock in front of the world.

"The nations wants to know from the PMO, from the BJP government, from the Prime Minister in many cases so far please site a single incident of serious terrorist case where charges have been dropped by the prosecuting agencies even before the court has decided whether to frame charges or not," Singhvi said.

"I can't think of a single case where in this cheap political manner a federal agency NIA is fighting with a premier state agency each casting serious suspicions on each other. Please tell us are we not becoming a laughing stock of terrorists around the world? Who see these two premier anti-terrorist agencies fighting like cats and dogs," he added.

Singhvi further accused the Centre and said, "How has this change occurred after eight years when there is a new dispensation."

The NIA now contends that prime accused in the Malegaon blasts were framed by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) which planted evidence against him.

The NIA last week gave a clean chit to accused Sadhvi Pragya Thakur and five others by stating lack of evidence to justify their prosecution in the case.

NIA said out that witnesses against accused had retracted their statements.

The Malegaon 2008 blast case was a first case in which Hindu extremists, including Lt. Colonel Prasad Shrikant Purohit and Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur were chargesheeted in 2009 by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad.

The NIA took over the case in 2011.