While the Sangh Parivar today called her arrest a politial conspiracy to malign Hindus, it also distanced itself from sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, one of the three charged with murder by the Maharashtra Police for her alleged role in the Malegaon and Modasa blasts on September 29.

Pragya was a former member of the national executive of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the students’ wing of the RSS.

Pictures of the sadhvi with BJP President Rajnath Singh and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan were in circulation in Bhopal and Indore. The event: a condolence meeting after the death of state Education Minister Laxman Gaur in February 2006.

Speaking to The Sunday Express today, Gaur’s wife Malini Gaur, who is a strong BJP contender for the Indore -4 Assembly seat after her husband’s death, said: “Sadhvi Pragya Singh was one of the several friends invited by my husband to a yagya in January this year. That was when I met her. She was also there after his death. I don’t know who has issued the picture. It’s a political conspiracy.”

Said Mukesh Jain, who served as personal assistant to Laxman Gaur: “It could be an insider’s job by someone from within the BJP or someone from a rival party.”

Chief Minister Chouhan said he wouldn’t comment “since investigations were on in the matter”. Asked about sharing the stage with her, he said: “Where’s the question of disowning anyone when all the 6.5 crore inhabitants of Madhya Pradesh are part of my family?”

... contd.