The BJP and its ecosystem on Thursday cited the Malegaon blast acquittals to accuse the Congress of manufacturing the concept of “Hindu terror” to appease its vote bank.

On the eve of the verdict, home minister Amit Shah had, while responding to the debate on Operation Sindoor in the Rajya Sabha, asserted that “no Hindu can ever be a terrorist” and charged the Congress with coining the term “saffron terror” to malign Hindus.

On Thursday, the BJP fielded former law minister and MP Ravi Shankar Prasad to address the media at the party headquarters here.

“The Congress’s conspiracy to forcibly impose ‘Hindu terrorism’ on the country has been shattered today. In the Malegaon blast case, the court’s decision has stated that there is no evidence against any of the accused,” Prasad said.

“This was purely a conspiracy by the Congress for vote bank politics. The Congress can go to any extent to please its vote bank.”

Prasad demanded that the acquitted seven be compensated and the prosecution apologise for allegedly torturing them and planting evidence to frame them.

The former law minister demanded an apology from Sonia and Rahul Gandhi. He claimed that according to Wikileaks, Rahul had in 2010 told the then US ambassador that extremist Hindu groups can be more dangerous than the terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba.

“What did the Union home minister say yesterday inthe Rajya Sabha? A Hinducannot be a terrorist,” BJP parliamentarian Nishikant Dubey told reporters on Parliament’s premises.

He added: “All the terrorists in this country have only one religion. It hasbeen proved.”

In a post on X, BJP social media head Amit Malviya demanded an “unconditional apology” from the Congress for maligning the “Sanatan Dharma”.

“The sinister conspiracy by the Congress to manufacture the bogey of ‘Saffron Terror’ has not just collapsed — it has been buried for good,” he wrote. “Sanatan is sacred. Hindus can never be terrorists.”

Prasad said Lt Col Prasad Purohit, who had fought against terrorism in Kashmir, and former BJP Lok Sabha member Pragya Singh Thakur had been falsely implicated.

“Sadhvi Pragya Thakur was accused simply because her motorcycle was allegedly used in the blast. She was tortured so severely that she could not walk afterwards. This was all done by the Congress for vote-bank politics. We welcome the court’s judgment,” he said.

That the acquittals came on a day US President Donald Trump’s steep tariffs, and his description of the Indian economy as “dead”, created a controversy led some in the Opposition to question the verdict’s timing.

“I have not read the verdict yet but the accused in such a big incident should be punished. Such a big thing happened in America, is this news to suppress that news?” Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said.

AIMIM chief and Lok Sabha MP Asaduddin Owaisi expressed disappointment at the verdict and called it a blow to justice.

“The initial investigation was conducted by the late Hemant Karkare (a police officer killed by the 26/11 gunmen in Mumbai), and was later taken over by the NIA. The investigation in this case was flawed,” Owaisi said.

“After 17 years, the court has acquitted all the accused. Our question to the BJP and the Maharashtra government is this: When they were restless over earlier decisions, they rushed to the Supreme Court and had them stayed. Will they go to the Supreme Court now as well?”

Arvind Sawant, MP from the Shiv Sena faction led by Uddhav Thackeray, castigated the probe agencies for their shoddy work.

“Recently, all the accused in the Mumbai serial blast were acquitted…. I am concerned about the (Malegaon) investigation. If not them (those acquitted), then someone else did it. But who did it? It’s a failure of the police department,” he said.