National

Clean chit to Pragya in Modasa blast case

AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat police have given a clean chit to Sadhvi Pragya Thakur and her associates in the Modasa bomb blast case.

A police spokesman said here on Saturday that a team of the Gujarat police, which was present during the interrogation of the Sadhvi for the Malegaon bomb blasts, found nothing against her and her alleged associates in the Modasa blast case.

The involvement of the Sadhvi and her associates in the blast in Modasa in Sabarkantha district in north Gujarat on September 29 in which two persons were killed and about eight others injured, was suspected because not only the pattern of the blasts was the same as the Malegaon blasts, but it also occurred simultaneously with the blasts in the Maharashtra town. In both the towns, the minority population was targeted and was believed to have been planned as a reprisal to the series of blasts in different parts of the country, mostly killing the members of the majority community.

Originally a resident of Surat in south Gujarat, the Sadhvi and three others were arrested by the anti-terrorist squad of the Maharashtra police in connection with the Malegaon blasts and they are presently in the police custody in Mumbai.

The police spokesman said a team of the Gujarat police would be sent to Assam to participate in the investigation into the blasts there to check whether anyone connected with the Ahmedabad blasts was also involved in the Assam blasts.

Meanwhile, the metropolitan court here granted further police remand till November 14 to all the 26 accused in the Ahmedabad blasts, including the alleged SIMI kingpin Safdar Nagori.

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