New Delhi, Nov. 21: The BJP appeared to have softened its stance on the Malegaon blast probe after national security adviser M.K. Narayanan briefed L.K. Advani on the case today.

“The statement made by our leader (Advani) was confined to the charges levelled by sadhvi Pragya Singh in her affidavit. Advani was concerned about the alleged torture and ill-treatment by the police,” party spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy said.

Hours earlier, Rudy had slammed the probe by Maharashtra’s anti-terror squad, saying it was “directionless and full of contradictions”. He appeared to suggest the Congress was directing the inquiry with an eye on elections.

After the meeting between Advani and Narayanan, who was accompanied by Intelligence Bureau chief P.C. Haldar, Rudy said the national security adviser had told the leader of Opposition that “the government will look into these charges (made by the sadhvi).”

Advani himself told the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit later that the meeting with Narayanan, which followed a call to him from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, “ended with (an assurance) that the contents of the affidavit (of Pragya) are being probed”. Narayanan is also understood to have said there was no “witch-hunt in the Malegaon probe”.

The BJP neither reiterated its demand for the judicial probe nor pressed for a change in the ATS team, as sought by Advani earlier. Rudy tried to clarify that Advani hadn’t commented on the probe and the BJP wanted the law to take its own course. “He (Advani) was only concerned about the brutalities against a woman.”

Earlier in the day, Rudy had accused the Congress of “doing politics with the investigation”. He likened the ATS probe to the U.C. Banerjee report which had concluded that the Godhra train fire was accidental and not the result of a mob attack, as alleged by the BJP.