Punish Sadhvi Pragya if found guilty: Advani

But earlier, party president Rajnath Singh stuck to his new line on Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur that “an Arushi-like case was being built up around her”, and that “those believing in cultural nationalism cannot ever take to terror”.

The BJP president in an interview with ‘The Indian Express’ on Wednesday had said that investigating agencies had not found any evidence against the former ABVP activist — alleged to have a hand in the Malegaon blasts — “a reason why they were insisting on a narco-test”.

Sadhvi to undergo psychological tests in Mumbai

The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Friday took Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, an accused in the Malegaon blast case, to the forensic science laboratory in Mumbai where she will undergo brain-mapping and polygraph tests.

Pragya will undergo brain-mapping, polygraph and lie detector tests at Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) in suburban Santa Cruz, ATS Director Rukmani Krishnamurthy said.

The Nashik Court had permitted the ATS to conduct these psychological tests on Sadhvi.

Meanwhile, Pragya’s brother-in-law Bhagwan Jha has alleged that ATS officials physically tortured her and is planning to approach the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) in this regard.

“We will first move the Human Rights Commission and then the Bombay High Court demanding an inquiry to be set-up in this matter as Pragya is being falsely implicated in this case,” Jha said.

Thakur, a former ABVP office bearer, was picked up by the ATS.

‘Terrorism compounded by illegal migration’

L K Advani on Friday said the problem of terrorism in Assam has been aggravated by illegal migration and asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh what steps his government had taken to protect states and citizens.

Describing yesterday’s serial bomb blasts in the state as unprecedented, Advani said “I ask the prime minister, who is elected from Assam, what has his government done after the Supreme Court’s landmark judgement on the IMDT Act indicting the Government of India for having colluded with external aggression”.

Stating that he wanted POTA back, he told the media here, “Article 355 imposes on the Centre to protect states against external aggression. Has the government taken a single step to discharge its duties as outlined by the Supreme Court?

“The government only incorporated all those provisions in the struck down IMDT (Illegal Migrants Dermination by Tribunals) in the Foreigners Act, which the Supreme Court declared as unconstitutional”, he said after visiting the blast sites in Guwahati and meeting the injured in hospitals.

“I would also like to ask the PM what his response is to the mental state of the people of Assam. How is he going to meet the challenge of the citizens sense of insecurity and lack of security?” he asked.

Claiming that there were 3.5 crore illegal Bangladeshi migrants in the country, he asked if the Centre had exerted pressure on Bangladesh to take them back.

“In the media three organisations — ULFA, Bangladesh-based HuJI and Lashkar have been mentioned as perpetrators of yesterday’s blasts. ULFA is invariably mentioned. I do not spare the ULFA,” he said.