New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Pragya Singh Thakur, accused in the Malegaon blast case, has been nominated to the Parliamentary Consultative Committee of the Ministry of Defence headed by Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.

Thakur had defeated former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Congress leader Digvijaya Singh in the Lok Sabha polls earlier this year. 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.

The letter shows the list of MPs on the panel.

The Bhopal MP has often hogged headlines for her controversial statements. Thakur stoked a controversy when she claimed that Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse was a patriot. Though she apologised for the remarks, the row forced Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attempt some damage control: he claimed that he would never forgive Thakur for what she said. The MP was also issued a show cause notice by the BJP ahead of the election.

Claiming that the then Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare was killed in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks due to her "curse", Thakur earned the ire of the Opposition. 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.

“A certain maharaj ji told me not to give up on my saadhna (meditation) as the BJP is facing a hard time and the Opposition is indulging in black magic activities to harm the efficient leadership of the BJP. Yeh hona wala hai aur aap target hai. (This is going to happen and BJP is the target),” said Thakur who spent nine years in jail for her alleged involvement in the Malegaon blasts.