Indore, Aug 2 (IANS) Madhya Pradesh Urban Affairs Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya on Saturday met Shyam Sahu, who was arrested in connection with the Malegaon blast case and had spent three years in jail.

Sahu was released from jail in 2017.

Calling him, as one of the victims of in Malegaon incident, Vijayvargiya said that Shyam Shahu was tortured in jail and repeatedly forced to mention senior Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) functionaries, but he never ‘wavered from truth’.

“The sole aim of the Malegaon case was to defame Hindutva. Shyam Shahu is himself a witness. Verdict on Malegaon case shows that nothing can be made on the foundation of lies. I want to reiterate that a Hindu can never be a terrorist,” Vijayvargiya said in a video he shared on X.

“They (police) kept torturing me and asked me to take the RSS name, but I didn’t take any name. How could I take any name when the RSS had nothing to do with this case?” said Shyam Sahu.

Shahu stated that he was stripped, locked up in a chill room, and made to sit on shards of broken glass while he could hear Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur scream in pain in the next room.

He also said that the verdict came as a “balm for him.”

Shyam Shahu’s statement came two days after a Mumbai court pronounced its judgment on the Malegaon blast case, acquitting all seven persons, including former BJP MP from Bhopal Pragya Singh Thakur and Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit, saying that the prosecution failed to establish the allegations against the accused beyond a reasonable doubt on July 31.

In her first reaction following the acquittal, Pragya Singh Thakur stated that Congress, along with all other non-believers who were the originators of the ‘saffron terrorism’ tag, have been disgraced.

Taking to social media platform X, she wrote: “The Congress, along with all other non-believers, who are the originators of ‘saffron terrorism’ and ‘Hindu terrorism’, have been disgraced. The victory of saffron, Hindutva, and Sanatan has led to the triumph of all Sanatanis and patriots. Heartfelt congratulations…. Jai Hindu Rashtra, Jai Shri Ram…”

Nearly 17 years after a deadly blast rocked Malegaon in Maharashtra, a special NIA court in Mumbai on Thursday acquitted all seven accused, citing a lack of evidence.

The verdict marks the closure of a high-profile case that had long been a flashpoint in debates over “saffron terror.”

The powerful explosion occurred on the night of September 29, 2008, near Bhikku Chowk in Malegaon, a communally sensitive town approximately 200 kilometres from Mumbai.

The blast, which took place during the holy month of Ramzan, killed six people and injured more than 100 others.

The court, presided over by Special Judge A.K. Lahoti, stated in its ruling that while the prosecution was able to establish that the bomb blast had occurred, it failed to prove that the explosive device was fitted on the motorcycle allegedly owned by Sadhvi Pragya.

–IANS

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