Malegaon blasts: Shiv Sena targets UPA, demands action against ATS

New Delhi: The Shiv Sena on Friday downplayed the ongoing controversy over the clean chit given to Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur in the 2008 Malegaon blast case and dubbed the entire episode to be 'bogus', adding that it was an attempt made by former union home P. Chidambaram and the NCP government in Maharashtra to target the leaders having affiliation with the saffron outfits.

Shiv Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut demanded a thorough probe against those Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) officers whom he alleged of conspiring the sequence of events in this case.

"This controversy was conspired against our leaders, the whole case was bogus. May it be Sahdvi Pragya or Colonel Purohit. This whole case was fabricated...And the slogan of Hindu terrorism was coined. The then home minister P. Chidambaram along with the NCP government's home minister of Maharashtra wove this controversy. We in the Shiv Sena demand that this whole case should be shut as there is nothing in this case... How can you brand Colonel Purhit, who fought for the country, a terrorist?" Raut told ANI.

"The ATS, which was probing the case, took the statement of people by laying atrocities on them. Now, I want that all the ATS officers, who gave false relevance to this case, should be prosecuted and a departmental inquiry should be logged against them as they have made a false case," he added.

The NIA today filed its chargesheet in the September 2008 Malegaon blasts case and dropped the names of Sadhvi Pragnya Singh Thakur and four others as 'accused'.

The Malegaon 2008 blast case was a first case in which Hindu extremists, including Lt. Colonel Prasad Shrikant Purohit and Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur were chargesheeted in 2009 by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad.

The NIA took over the case in 2011.