Former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Lok Sabha MP Pragya Singh Thakur is among seven accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case who were acquitted by a special NIA court in Mumbai on Thursday.
The BJP leaders welcomed the special NIA court's decision and alleged that the erstwhile Congress government falsely implicated Hindus.
Responding to the court verdict, Lok Sabha MP Nishikant Dubey said, "What did the Union Home Minister say in the Rajya Sabha yesterday? A Hindu cannot be a terrorist. All the terrorists in this country have only one religion."
Alleging that the Congress party spread the term "Saffron Terrorism," the BJP MP said, "It has been proven. Congress did the dirty work of spreading the term 'Saffron Terrorism'... Everything is clear now, and the Congress will have to face the consequences... Instead of catching Pakistani terrorists, why were the people of India accused?"
BJP MP and former Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma said, "This is a big day... I feel that Sadhvi Pragya and her allies were framed falsely to coin the narrative of 'saffron terrorism'."
Dinesh Sharma further said that after the verdict, Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi should issue an apology.
Six people had been killed and several others were injured after a bomb planted on a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Malegaon on September 29, 2008.
The NIA court, while acquitting all the accused in the case, stated that it was established that a blast did occur in Malegaon, but the prosecution failed to prove the bomb was planted on the motorcycle linked to the accused.
