New Delhi: Pragya Singh Thakur will contest from Bhopal and continue to challenge Congress stalwart and former chief minister Digvijay Singh as a special NIA court on Wednesday dismissed an appeal to bar her from the Lok Sabha elections.

Thakur, in turn, hailed this as the victory of “truth and religion”. “Truth is truth. Truth and dharm (religion) always triumph,” she said.

Meanwhile, based on inputs from intelligence agencies, the security status of Thakur has been bumped up to ‘Z’ category. Now, 22 security personnel would accompany her round the clock. Her house too has been fixed with metal detectors.

Also read: EC issues notice to Sadhvi Pragya for 'curse' comment on Hemant Karkare

The petition to bar Thakur, one of the accused in the Malegaon blast case and who is out on bail in UAPA case in the matter, was moved by Nisar Bilal, whose son Sayyed Ahmed was killed in the blast.

The special NIA court said that it did not have the legal powers to take a call in the matter and that the Election Commission of India (ECI) was better placed to take a decision. The petitioner had argued that while she was out on bail on health grounds, she was campaigning for the polls.

The NIA, on the other hand, filed its reply saying that since they had not found enough evidence to prosecute her in the case, they would not want to intervene into whether she be allowed or disallowed to contest the elections.

Contending Bilal’s arguments, the BJP leader’s lawyer JP Mishra argued that Thakur was fighting for ideology and the nation and to expunge the idea of Hindu terror. Mishra said that while she was better than before, but she had not fully recovered.

