Claiming that an “Arushi-like” case was being built against her, BJP president Rajnath Singh has come out in defence of Sadhvi Pragya Singh, accused of murder in the Malegaon blasts that killed five Muslims after Ramzan prayers on September 29.

He was alluding to the Arushi Talwar murder case where the father of the 14-year-old Noida schoolgirl, was picked up by the UP police and then subsequently released for lack of any evidence.

Asked about the other arrests in the case, including those of two alleged accomplices of Sadhvi and a retired Army major, he said: “I am not aware of any arrests other than Pragya’s. Anyone who believes in the ideology of cultural nationalism cannot ever be a terrorist.”

Although Rajnath’s remarks are echoed by several BJP leaders in private conversations, these mark a departure from the official calibrated reaction of the party and the Sangh Parivar ever since the arrests — first reported in The Indian Express — by the Maharashtra Police.

Their refrain so far has been that the law “should take its course” and that “terror has no religion.” Many other Sangh leaders have denied any knowledge of her association with the party although her father has claimed that Pragya — a former member of the national executive of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the RSS students’ wing — campaigned for the BJP in the 2002 Gujarat Assembly elections.

But the BJP president is the first senior party leader to openly attack the case against her. Speaking to The Indian Express today, he said: “I don’t think that she is a terrorist. They didn’t find any material evidence against her despite the raids. Had they got even a shred of evidence against her, they would not have insisted on a narco test.” The court last week approved her narco and brain-mapping.

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