By IANS,
Nashik : Malegaon bomb blast accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur Monday fainted in the chief judicial magistrate’s court in this Maharashtra city even as hundreds of activists of Shiv Sena, Bharatiya Janata Party, Hindu Maha Sabha and Abhinav Bharat held demonstrations outside in her support.
The Sadhvi, along with her two alleged accomplices Shyam Bhavarlal Sahu and Shiv Narain Singh Kalsangra, was produced in the court earlier in the day by the Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the Maharashtra police as their custody remand expired Monday.
The ATS drew a blank in the lie detector and brain mapping tests performed on the Sadhvi at a laboratory in Kalina in Mumbai last week.
Claiming that the ATS has come closer to a breakthrough in their investigations, special public prosecutor Ajay Misar told the court that it would help them in the interrogation of others in their custody.
The Sadhvi, who argued her own case, however, told the court that she and the two others arrested along with her were innocent and were being implicated as part of a larger game to defame Hindutva movement.
She also alleged torture on the part of the ATS sleuths during her interrogation before and after her formal arrest.
With the police promulgating prohibitory orders inside the court premises and also foiling the activists’ attempt to stage a road blockade, they were left to hold a sit-in outside the court displaying saffron flags and placards expressing solidarity with the Sadhvi and denouncing the government.