Sadhvi held for 2007 murder of RSS worker

MUMBAI: Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, a key accused in 2008 Malegaon blast case, was arrested by the Madhya Pradesh police in connection with the murder of Sunil Joshi, an RSS worker and a suspect in the Samjhauta Express blast case, late on Friday.
Joshi, believed to be an associate of the sadhvi, was shot dead on December 29, 2007, near his house in Dewas, MP.Two men on a motorbike and others in a Maruti van had shot Joshi from close range.
The MP police had sought the permission of the special MCOCA court to question Pragya in the case.
The sadhvi is currently under treatment at JJ Hospital. While the MP police are planning to take her to Dewas for further investigation, sources close to Pragya told TOI that her health is deteriorating and she can't even walk due to several ailments.
Pragya was arrested in the Malegaon blast case after the Maharashtra anti-terrorism squad found that the bike used to plant the bomb was registered in her name.
During interrogation, Pragya told the sleuths that she had sold the bike to Joshi, who is a suspect in various blast cases, including on Samjhauta Express and at Ajmer and Hyderabad.
Sixty-eight people were killed when bombs went off in two coaches of Samjhauta Express, running between Delhi and Lahore, around midnight on February 18, 2007, at Diwana near Panipat.
A team from the Industrial Area police station in Dewas interrogated Pragya for an hour in the hospital on Saturday. So far, five others-BJP corporator from Dewas Ram Charan Patel and RSS activists Harshad Solanki, Vasudev Parmar, Anand Raj and Mehul-have been arrested in connection with the murder. Patel was arrested last month for destruction of evidence. He had allegedly taken away Joshi's cellphone on the night of the murder, destroyed the SIM card and gave a different hand-set to the police. Solanki is an accused in the Samjhauta Express blast case and was arrested by the Rajasthan ATS last year.
Sadhvi's name surfaced in January when Chanchal, the 19-year-old niece of Sunil Joshi, told mediapersons that Pragya was regular visitor at their Dewas residence. Chanchal claimed that Sadhvi had visited their house the night after Joshi's murder and took away a briefcase.