NEW DELHI: The BJP is looking to pin Congress down over the UPA government’s alleged bid to manipulate “Hindutva terror” investigations to create a bogey while also diluting cases related to jihadi groups, like the Ishrat Jahan encounter probe.As a fresh war of words broke out over the NIA recommending that charges be dropped against Malegaon accused Sadhvi Pragya Thakur while removing Abhinav Bharat kingpin Lt Col Shrikant Purohit from the ambit of the tough MCOCA law, BJP is set to argue that Congress used terror probes for political gains.The party will point out that the creation of a ‘Hindu terror’ bogey went hand in hand with attempts to wash away the Lashkar links of the Ishrat module and the bid to target PM Narendra Modi in a “false encounter” case when he was Gujarat CM.“All the allegations levelled by Congress are baseless and we strongly reject it. Rather, they should apologise to the nation for framing these people,” BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma said on Sunday. He said Congress was frustrated and trying to divert attention from corruption cases like AgustaWestland.“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 is the court which lifted MCOCA for lack of evidence,” Sharma said. The case filed against BJP chief Amit Shah in the Sohrabuddin case, BJP members said, reflected the same pattern: central agencies were pressured to file chargesheets on the basis of flimsy evidence. In some cases, the agencies baulked at the last moment and in some the charges didn’t stick in court.Investigations in the Malegaon and other cases like Samjhauta blast were intended to suggest an equivalence between jihadi and Hindutva groups, with links to RSS and its outfits, to put BJP on the back foot is also being probed. The theme of alleged misuse of power, manipulation of central agencies and framing of political opponents complements the other offensive BJP has launched against Congress — graft in defence deals like AgustaWestland.The attack on Congress centres around suggesting that corruption and political games to electorally cripple opponents were the order of the day under UPA. This is key to BJP’s strategy to keep refreshing negative impressions about the main opposition.The strategy unfolded in Parliament during debates on Ishrat Jahan and the Agusta-Westland case. While BJP was seen to have an upper hand with its MPs using information present in government files to attack Congress, the failed bid to impose central rule in Uttarakhand helped the opposition to claw back somewhat.The rebuff to the government in the courts over Uttarakhand could not be passed off as a political act. But BJP remains determined to counter the charge of using central agencies to let off Hindutva suspects by claiming that many had been framed in the first place.