| schema:text
| - Fact Check: As social media argues over Sadhvi Pragya's acquittal, here are the facts
India Today's Anti-Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that the viral claim is misleading as the court has dropped charges only under Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
Listen to Story
India Today Fact Check
2008 Malegaon blasts case accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur has not been acquitted, but she is under trial in the case. She is out on bail, and the court had dropped charges against her only under MCOCA.
The BJP's decision to field 2008 Malegaon blast case accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur from Bhopal has led to a maelstrom of controversy on social media. While many have hit out at the BJP for nominating a 'terror accused', others, including BJP Delhi social media and IT head, Punit Agarwal and Network 18 executive editor Amish Devgan, have claimed that Sadhvi Pragya has been acquitted by the court.
Sadhvi Pragya was just accused and has been acquitted by NIA court. And everyone knows she was framed while This man goes to the court in midnight to defend a convicted terrorist. The condition of our judiciary is such because these hypocrites unfortunately became lawyers. https://t.co/SKVeJgPVn7 Chowkidar Punit Agarwal (@Punitspeaks) April 18, 2019
India Today's Anti-Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that the viral claim is misleading as the court has dropped charges only under Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). As of now, she is facing trail under various sections of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) in the Malegaon bombing case.
The archived version of the tweet can be seen here.
"Chowkidar Punit Agarwal" tweeted, "Sadhvi Pragya was just accused and has been acquitted by NIA court. And everyone knows she was framed while This man goes to the court in midnight to defend a convicted terrorist. The condition of our judiciary is such because these hypocrites unfortunately became lawyers."
Many other Twitter users, such as senior journalist Amish Devgan, Chowkidar Deepjyoti Pal and former journalist Monica, apart from Aaj Tak news channel, had also misreported that Sadhvi Pragya has been acquitted.
Amish's tweet got around 5,800 retweets and more than 15,000 likes.
The fact is that Sadhvi Pragya is currently facing trial under various Sections of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). The court had dropped charges under Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against all the accused in the Malegaon blasts case, including Sadhvi Pragya. She is out on bail since April, 2017.
In 2017, a Madhya Pradesh court had acquitted Sadhvi Pragya, along with seven others, in the murder of former RSS pracharak Sunil Joshi. Many prominent media houses had reported the matter. Sadhvi Pragya was accused of conspiracy in the 2007 murder case of former RSS pracharak Sunil Joshi. In February, 2017, a Dewas court acquitted all the accused, including Sadhvi Pragya.
2008 MALEGAON BLASTS CASE
Sadhvi Pragya was named as accused number 1 in the charge-sheet filed by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in the 2008 Malegaon blasts case. On September 29, 2008, an IED fitted in a motorcycle went off, killing six and injuring more than 100. The motorcycle (registration number GJ-05-BR-1920) was registered under Sadhvi's name.
An ATS team lead by Hemant Karkare (who was killed by Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks) arrested her. According to the ATS charge-sheet, Sadhvi Pragya provided the motorcycle to one Ramchandra Kalsangar, who along with his associate Sandeep Dange, executed the attack.
The charge-sheet also said that Sadhvi Pragya attended the meeting held on April 11 in Bhopal that year where the conspiracy was hatched, and also allegedly took charge of providing men to execute the attack.
CHARGES DROPPED UNDER MCOCA
After the formation of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), it took charge of the case in April, 2011, and filed a chargesheet in 2016. This chargesheet said that there was no evidence to link Sadhvi Pragya to the case and, therefore, she should be discharged.
The agency also recommended that MCOCA should be dropped against her. MCOCA was dropped but the court dismissed the agency's plea for her acquittal.
CHARGES FRAMED AGAINST SADHVI PRAGYA
In light of the NIA charge-sheet, the agency did not oppose her bail application either. The court also took notice of the fact that Sadhvi Pragya was hospitalised and undergoing treatment, the Bombay high court granted her bail in April 2017.
According to the bail order, Sadhvi Pragya was given bail because she was "suffering from breast cancer" and was "infirm and cannot even walk without support".
The NIA gave a clean chit to Sadhvi Pragya saying there is no incriminating material evidence against her, but the NIA special court rejected her exoneration and ordered in December, 2017, that she would face trial under the UAPA. The court said that both ATS and NIA charge-sheets have to be evaluated on merits during trial.
Later on, in October, 2018, the court framed charges against Sadhvi Pragya and six others under Sections 16 (committing a terror act) and 18 (conspiring to commit a terror act) of UAPA, and under the Indian Penal Code for murder, criminal conspiracy and promoting enmity between communities.
Many prominent media houses had widely covered this development.
CAN SHE CONTEST ELECTIONS?
As per Section 8(3) of The Representation of the People Act 1951, if a person is convicted of any offence and sentenced to an imprisonment of two years or more, it will lead to disqualification from contesting elections. Sadhvi Pragya has not been convicted by any court and that makes her eligible to contest elections.
Please share it on our at 73 7000 7000
You can also send us an email at factcheck@intoday.com
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)