Support for Pragya swells

Kartik Krushna Shashti

Activists throng court, collect fund

New Delhi: Support for Sadhvi Pragya and other Hindu activists arrested in connection with the Malegaon blasts swelled in Maharashtra on Monday, as a large number of Shiv Sena and BJP activists staged a vociferous demonstration in front of the Nashik court expressing their solidarity with them and the Pune-based Hindu organisations, including Abhinav Bharat, began raising funds from citizens for fighting their legal battle.

Hundreds of Sena and BJP workers — who had gathered near the Nashik court hours ahead of the production of Sadhvi Pragya and seven other accused in the Malegaon blasts case for extension of their judicial custody – surrounded the van carrying the eight accused, as it arrived at the court.

The saffron alliance activists raised slogans in support of Sadhvi Pragya and others accused in the Malegaon blasts like "Pragya Thakur tum age badho hum tumhare saath hain".

What provided an ideal backdrop for demonstration in support of Sadhvi Pragya and other Malegaon blasts accused were several posters of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, its executive president Uddhav Thackeray, former Prime Minister AB Vajpayee, Leader of Opposition LK Advani and local leaders of the saffron alliance parties.

A huge posse of police personnel stationed in and around the Nashik court were caught unawares by the spontaneous act of the Sena-BJP workers. It took some time before the police personnel could disperse the crowds and escort Sadhvi Pragya and other accused from the van to the courtroom.

However, the large presence of electronic mediapersons made the matters difficult for the police personnel in handling the demonstrators, who resisted vehemently the attempts to quell them from near the court premises.

Even long after Sadhvi Pragya and others were produced in the court, Sena-BJP activists kept raising slogans in their support and protesting against the "harassment" meted out to them while in ATS custody.

In a related development, the Hindu organisations, including Abhinav Bharat, have begun collecting funds from citizens in Pune, from the citizens for fighting the legal battle in support of Sadhvi Pragya and other accused in the Malegaon blasts.

The Hindu organisations have resorted to a fund collection drive, following a call given by Abhinav Bharat president and Nathuram Godse’s niece Himani Savarkar to citizens at a rally on Sunday night to "unite, support the Malegaon blasts accused and donate money for providing legal remedy to them".

Speaking at the rally, the Hindu leaders described Lt Col Srikant Prasad Purohit, a key accused in the Malegaon blasts, as the present-day "Mangal Pandey", a revolutionary soldier of the 1857 upsurge. All the speakers criticised the ATS and the State Government for the manner in which the Hindu activists were being victimised and harassed in the Malegaon blasts investigations.

Source: dailypioneer.com

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