New Delhi, April 24: A special NIA court on Wednesday rejected a plea seeking to bar Malegaon 2008 blast accused Pragya Singh Thakur from contesting the Lok Sabha elections. The court said it doesn't have legal powers to bar anyone from contesting polls, adding that the Election Commission can decide on Pragya Singh Thakur's candidature. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) didn't oppose her nomination.

"In ongoing elections, this Court does not have any legal powers to prohibit anyone from contesting elections. It is the job of electoral officers to decide. This court can't stop the accused number 1 (Pragya Thakur Singh) from contesting elections, this application is negated," the special NIA court said. During the hearing, the petitioner's lawyer argued that Thakur was granted bail on health grounds but she is fit and campaigning. Entered Politics So That No Woman Should Be Tortured: Sadhvi Pragya Singh.

"She isn't attending the court proceedings on grounds of ill-health, but she is campaigning for elections where she is not looking ill," the lawyer of Nisar Ahmed Sayyed Bilal, whose son Sayyed Azhar died in the 2008 Malegaon blast, said. Nisar filed a plea seeking court’s direction to bar Thakur from contesting elections as the case is under trial. In her response to the court, Thakur dubbed the petition as “frivolous”. Pragya Singh Thakur Was Framed in False Cases to Defame India's Culture, Says BJP President Amit Shah.

"It is submitted that it is beyond the competence of the Intervener to file application with prayers of the nature filed, more particularly when the same is without an affidavit in the support. The Intervener having knowledge of the same has still deliberately preferred to file this misconceived application, for extraneous objectives and for want of publicity," Thakur, a key accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, said.

Responding to the same application, the NIA said that "the matter pertains to elections and the Election Commission of India, NIA has no jurisdiction". Thakur is among the seven accused facing trial in the Malegaon blast case, wherein six people were killed and a dozen others were injured when a bomb placed on a motorcycle exploded in Maharashtra’s Malegaon on September 29, 2008. She is contesting from Bhopal Lok Sabha seat against Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 24, 2019 02:07 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).