Nearly six years after the murder of RSS pracharak Sunil Joshi, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has concluded that the Madhya Pradesh Police arrested the wrong people, including Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur. Joshi, an accused in the 2006 Malegaon blasts and the Samjhauta and Ajmer blasts in 2007, was found dead in Dewas on December 29, 2007.

According to the NIA probe, Joshi was killed by Lokesh Sharma and Rajender Pehalwan, both accused in the Samjhauta blasts case, for allegedly misbehaving with Thakur. The duo were reportedly helped by Dilip Jagtap and Jitender Sharma. All the four have been arrested. Sharma, a BJP youth wing leader, was arrested from Mhow recently, after which the NIA claimed the probe had been completed.

NIA sources said the group also feared that Joshi may expose their alleged involvement in bomb blast cases. Lokesh Sharma and Rajender Pehalwan are also reported to have had a financial dispute with Joshi.

The sources said the agency is seeking the home ministry's sanction to prosecute the four accused, after which a chargesheet will be filed. The agency is also examining the CFSL report on the murder weapon.

The agency then plans to approach the MP special court seeking to drop the charges against Pragya Singh Thakur, Harshad Solanki, Vasudev Parmar, Anand Raj Kataria and BJP councillor Ramcharan Patel, who were booked under IPC Sections 302 (murder), 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy) and 201 (destruction of evidence) by the MP Police.

While Thakur, an accused in the 2008 Malegaon blasts case, is currently in jail, Parmar, Kataria and Patel have been released on bail. Solanki is also still in jail for his alleged role in other crimes. The MP Police, in its chargesheet filed in 2011, had claimed that Joshi was shot by Harshad Solanki. It had said that Joshi was killed because Solanki and the others had started regarding him as a threat.

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