Pragya

Mumbai, Nov. 3: Police have laid on a Nashik court’s table a 15-page transcript of a purported conversation between Pragya Singh and alleged Malegaon bomb planter Ramji Sahu, as the BJP and its ideological partners raised the pitch for specific evidence against the sadhvi.

Public prosecutor Ajay Misar handed the transcript to the court, but revealed only a small part of it during arguments to counter the defence assertion that the police had found no evidence against the sadhvi, who will undergo a narco-analysis test in Mumbai tomorrow.

Misar said the “conversation” between her and Ramji had been separately corroborated by a witness before a Mazgaon court.

The Maharashtra anti-terrorist squad (ATS) claims it has 400 minutes of recording of Pragya’s phone conversations in the days following the September 29 blast, including talks with Ramji.

Ramji is the brother of Shyamlal Sahu, a mobile shop owner from Indore who was arrested along with the sadhvi. The ATS claims Ramji, whose whereabouts are not known, had planted the bomb.

According to the transcript of the conversation recorded a few days after the explosion, the sadhvi asked Ramji why the casualty figure was as low as five.

Ramji, the police said, replied that he could not find parking space for the motorcycle carrying the bomb in the market crowded with Ramzan and Id shoppers and eventually kept it at Bhikku Chowk. The device was packed with ammonium nitrate and RDX.

The sadhvi also asked Ramji what alibi she should give if the police traced the LML Freedom motorcycle to her.

Ramji apparently advised her to say that she sold the two-wheeler before the explosion to someone in Gujarat. The sadhvi’s parents live in Surat.

Ramji also told her that if the police were not convinced by the answer, she should name him as the present owner of the motorcycle.

The revelation comes amid the BJP’s allegations that the probe into the sadhvi’s alleged “terror” links appeared “sponsored”, “suspicious”, “selective” and “opaque”.

The party said the ATS should also look into the role of the Students’ Islamic Movement of India, which was implicated in the 2006 Malegaon blast, and not put only Hindu groups on its radar.