lok-sabha-elections

Updated: May 04, 2020 16:13 IST

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Bhopal candidate and Malegaon blast accused Sadhvi Pragya Thakur said on Friday that former Mumbai Anti-Terrorist Squad chief Hemant Karkare, who died in action during the Mumbai terror attacks, had tortured her. She added that the top cop and died after she cursed him.

“He tortured me… I said may you perish, his inauspicious time started from that moment and he was killed by terrorists in a month”, Sadhvi, who is out on bail in the case, said at a press conference in Bhopal.

Read: ‘I am not a terrorist,’ says Pragya Thakur

Pragya Thakur is among the seven accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case in which six people were killed and over 100 injured on September 29. Hemant Karkare was heading the probe and Pragya Thakur was arrested as the motorcycle used in the blast was registered in her name.

Watch: ‘ATS chief Hemant Karkare died after I cursed him’: Sadhvi Pragya sparks row

In May 2016, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) gave a clean chit to Sadhvi Pragya. However, the trial court refused to let her off, saying the motorcycle used in the blast was registered in her name.

Meanwhile, a Malegaon blast victim’s father has moved the special NIA court seeking a ban on Sadhvi Pragya contesting the Lok Sabha election. In his petition, the complainant Nisar Sayeed, who lost his son in the 2008 Malegaon blast, said Pragya Thakur should attend court proceedings in Mumbai and be barred from contesting the Lok Sabha election.