NIA to question Pragya in Samjhauta blast case

The NIA sleuths will question 2008 Malegaon blasts case accused Pragya Singh Thakur in connection with the Samjhauta blast case due to her close connection with Sunil Joshi, the murdered RSS member from Madhya Pradesh.

The NIA sleuths will question 2008 Malegaon blasts case accused Pragya Singh Thakur in connection with the Samjhauta blast case due to her close connection with Sunil Joshi, the murdered RSS member from Madhya Pradesh.

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Aseemanand is said to have told investigators that Joshi had made arrangements for a terror strike on the Samjhauta Express and it was Thakur who had introduced Joshi to him in 2003 for the first time.

Aseemanand has also told investigators that he met Joshi, Thakur and Sandeep Dange in June 2006 at Bharat Bhai Rateshwar's house in Valsad, Gujarat. In the meeting, terror strikes at Malegaon, Hyderabad, Ajmer and the Samjhauta Express were planned.

Joshi was murdered in mysterious circumstances in Dewas (Madhya Pradesh) on December 29, 2007. Investigators now need confirmation of what Aseemanand has told and plan to question Thakur in the case.

Investigators have come to know that Thakur and Joshi had shared a very close relationship.

According to sources, the cases are spread over four states-Andhra Pradesh (Mecca Masjid blast, Hyderabad), Rajasthan (Ajmer blast case), Maharashtra (Malegaon) and Haryana (Samjhauta case) and accused are common in most of the cases.

Video-conferencing will help ensure physical presence of accused in courts spread over the four states.