Congress should apologise over Malegaon case: BJP

Terming as baseless Congress's allegations that the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) was interfering in the 2008 Malegaon blast case to give "clean chits" to accused associated with RSS-BJP, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday said the main opposition party should rather apologise to the nation for its act.

"All the allegations levelled by the Congress are baseless and we strongly reject it. Rather they should apologise to the nation for framing these people," BJP national secretary Srikant Sharma told IANS.

He said the Congress was frustrated and trying to divert the attention of the people from corruption cases like Agustawestland.

Sharma said: "Political comments are not evidence. Law acts on evidence. In Samjhauta Express and Malegaon case they arrested the alleged accused but there was no evidence against them."

"It was the court which lifted MCOCA for lack of evidence," he added.

The Congress on Sunday accused the PMO of interference in the case and sought to drag National Security Advisor Ajit Doval's name into the row.

Sharma said the Congress has been exposed in the matter and has no moral right to accuse the BJP.

"In lust of power, they did mistakes. Now they have been exposed," he said.

He also said that it was the Congress which dubbed Afzal Guru and Yakub Memon as innocent.

"Those who did contempt of the court by dubbing terrorists as innocent are now talking about judicial process," Sharma said.

The Congress urged the Supreme Court to take into its custody the charge sheet, official files, notings and other relevant documents in the case to ensure justice.

Accusing the Congress of having double-standards, the BJP leader said the opposition parties were silent when eight Muslims were also discharged by the court in the Malegaon blasts recently.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday filed a charge sheet against 10 and dropped Sadhvi Pragya Thakur and five others from the list of the accused in the Malegaon case.

Charges under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) were dropped against all accused including Lt. Col. Prasad Shrikant Purohit.

--IANS

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