Mumbai, March 23: During her questioning by the National Investigation Agency over the Samjhauta Express blasts, Pragya Singh Thakur told interrogators that she had met the 2008 Malegaon blast main accused Colonel Shrikant Purohit a week after the attack. And that he had told her he was into big things like blasts etc and had masterminded the Orissa and Karnataka “disturbances” (Kandhamal riots and attacks on churches in Mangalore).
She said the Colonel also showed the rail tickets to prove his claims.
In her interrogation report, a copy of which is with The Indian Express, Pragya claims to have met the Colonel for the first time in April 2008 at an Abhinav Bharat meeting, four months before the Malegaon attack, and says she did not know about it.
However, the NIA disputes this, having seized proof of an SMS sent by Purohit to all his associates after the Sadhvi’s arrest, which said “Singh has sung the song” and advised that they all should “go underground”. The agency believes this message indicated that Pragya was a co-conspirator in the attack.
Pragya was arrested on October 7, 2008, just two days after the meeting where, she says, Purohit bragged to her about being behind several attacks.
She told interrogators that she fell out with Purohit over “money”. Pragya reportedly demanded Rs 1 lakh from him to build an ashram in Jabalpur, and he kept dilly-dallying. Pragya was building the ashram with the help of her brother-in-law Bhagwan bhai. Pragya told the NIA that she had spoken to the Colonel not more than eight to ten times and that too only in context of money for the ashram.
When they met after the Malegaon blast, Sadhvi says, the Colonel offered her the money, which she refused. She also claims to have asked him why he was telling her about the blasts.
Pragya claims to have first met the Colonel in April 2008 at a meeting attended by, among others, Amritananddev Tirath, Aseemanand, Jeswani, Sunil Joshi, Sudhakar Chaturvedi, Sameer Kulkarni and Ramji Kalsangra.
In its report, submitted to the Union Home Ministry, the NIA also notes that while the Sadhvi claims she does not have the money to finance her case or her medical treatment, some like-minded political organisations are bearing her expenses. Two Mumbai builders are reportedly footing the bills of her lawyer.
–Agencies–