`No funeral for Sadhvi Pragya`s father till she gets bail`

Mumbai: The family of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, whose father passed away in Uttar Pradesh`s Etawah town, has decided not to hold the funeral until the accused in the 2008 Malegoan blast case gets bail, her lawyer said Saturday.

"Her family has decided not to perform the funeral until Sadhvi Pragya arrives for the last rites," her lawyer Ganesh Sovani told a news agency. The body of Chandrapal Singh, an Ayurvedic medico, was taken to his native village Lahar in Bhind district of Madhya Pradesh Saturday afternoon. Sadhvi Pragya`s siblings, including two sisters and a younger brother, are present in Lahar, he said. Sovani will move a special "temporary bail application" at the residence of the Special National Investigating Agency (NIA) and Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) Court Judge Y.D. Shinde in Mumbai Sunday. "I will intimate the NIA and seek her release for 13 days as per the legal provisions," Sovani added. Sadhvi Pragya is under the judicial custody of Mumbai`s MCOCA and NIA court, but presently lodged in a Bhopal jail. She has also been implicated in the Sunil Joshi murder case of December 2007. Sovani said that Sadhvi Pragya will give an undertaking to the court to make two trips daily to the local police station during her "temporary bail" period to attend her father`s funeral. IANS