Mumbai: Muslim Rashtriya Manch, affiliated to RSS, today hailed the Union government for providing justice to those who were “released” in the Malegaon blast cases and demanded compensation for them.

Addressing a press conference here, Mohammad Afzal, national convener of MRM, said, “We are thankful to the Narendra Modi government for providing justice to all without any religion-based discrimination.

“We welcome the release of the people, wrongly arrested in haste by the Maharashtra ATS, and at the same time we also demand compensation for them,” he said.

Malegaon, a town in north Maharashtra, witnessed blasts in 2006 and 2008. A special court here last month dropped charges against eight Muslim youths for lack of evidence in the 2006 case.

This month, NIA gave a clean chit to Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and five others in the 2008 case.

Afzal said he was talking about both the cases.

He also sought proper investigation for those who are behind bars only on “suspicion”.

“A neutral body should be set up to enquire into the allegations against such people,” he said.

Afzal accused the UPA government of indulging in vote-bank politics.

“The previous government tried do divide the two communities (Hindus and Muslims) for vote-bank politics,” he said.