Bharatiya Janata Party MP from Bhopal and key accused in Malegaon blast case, Pragya Singh Thakur has been nominated to the Parliamentary Consultative Committee of the Ministry of Defence headed by Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.
Pragya Thakur defeated Congress leader Digvijaya Singh in the Lok Sabha elections this year. She is one of the accused in Malegaon blast case, which left 6 people dead and more than 100 injured on September 29, 2008. The Bombay High Court granted her bail on health grounds in April 2017 after the NIA dropped charges against her under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act. She is currently under trial for multiple charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Thakur hogged the headlines with her controversial statement, where she termed Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse a patriot. Even though she issued a public apology later for her remarks, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that he would never forgive Thakur for what she said. The BJP also issued her a show cause notice ahead of the general election.
In yet another incident, Thakur said that the then Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare was killed in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks due to her ‘curse’ due to which she drew a lot of flak. However, she refused to learn her lesson as she attributed the deaths of Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley to ‘marak shakti’ (killing power) being used by the BJP’s political adversaries.
Thakur has spent nine years in jail for her involvement in the Malegaon blasts and currently under trial.