Sadhvi's torture claim to be probed

New Delhi: National Security Advisor (NSA) M.K. Narayanan on Friday assured senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani that the allegations of torture on Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, an accused in the Malegaon bombing, would be looked into.

The meeting was a follow up to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's telephone conversation with Advani a day earlier where he assured him that Narayanan would "explain the facts" of the inquiry into the September 29 blast.

Advani was particularly disturbed by the affidavit filed by Pragya in the Nashik court where she gave details of how she was tortured and kept in illegal detention for 16 days.

"My query was only confined to the affidavit and this was the communication with the prime minister," Advani said, while speaking at the Hindustan Times leadership summit after the meeting with Narayanan.

"I met the National Security Advisor and spent quite some time. I was told that the content of the affidavit is being probed and that is how the meeting ended."

BJP spokesman Rajiv Pratap Rudy said: "Advani heard them patiently and reiterated his demand made to Manmohan Singh on Thursday for a judicial inquiry into Pragya Singh's charges that the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) tortured her in custody."

Manmohan Singh had called Advani just after he issued a strongly worded statement attacking the "barbaric treatment" of the sadhvi by Maharashtra's ATS and against the backdrop of the BJP raking up its protest against the Malegaon arrests.

Advani had also slammed the ATS for an "unprofessional and politically-motivated" probe into the case.

Party insiders said Advani also used the conversation to rebutt any suggestion that the BJP had reversed its stand on terrorism because of the "faith" of the Malegaon suspects.

The ATS has booked all the 10 accused in the Malegaon blast under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) law that will allow the authorities to keep them in detention for six months before filing a charge sheet.

Investigations into the September 29 Malegaon blast, which left six dead and 20 injured, are in the final stage of completion.

If found guilty, the accused face a minimum of five years' in jail and a maximum of a life sentence.

A designated special judge on Friday remanded Sudhakar Chaturvedi, one of the accused in the Malegaon blast case, to police custody till December 3 under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).

Special MCOCA Judge Y.D. Shinde also allowed the Maharashtra police Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) to bring before it on November 24 (Monday) the other nine people who are accused in the same case.

Chaturvedi was brought to Mumbai after the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Nashik, granted the ATS permission to seek his custody under MCOCA.

On Thursday, the ATS slapped various provisions of the MCOCA on all the 10 accused arrested in the case, including Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur. Chaturvedi, general secretary of the right-wing Hindutva group Abhinav Bharat, was arrested by Mumbai Police on November 4 for possessing an illegal revolver, live cartridges and a fake Indian Army identity card.

He confessed to the police that he had obtained the weapon and the fake army ID card from co-accused Lietenant Colonel Prasad Purohit. The army officer too had mentioned Chaturvedi's name during his interrogation by the ATS, the court was told.