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NIA Court Leaves It To EC To Decide If Pragya Thakur Can Contest Polls

The plea to bar Pragya Singh Thakur was filed by the father of a Malegaon blast victim.
Hindustan Times via Getty Images

The special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Wednesday rejected an application to bar Malegaon blast accused Pragya Singh Thakur from contesting 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

She is the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate for Bhopal.

The NIA said that it had no jurisdiction in the matter as contesting elections was unrelated to the case and it did not want to offer comments on the plea as it was related to the election and the election commission, according to The Times of India.

“It (whether she can contest) can be decided by the EC only,” the NIA said.

The plea was filed by the father of a Malegaon blast victim. Nisar Sayyed, who lost his son in the blast, filed the application against Thakur after the BJP fielded her from the Bhopal Lok Sabha seat, where she is locked in a battle with Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh.

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The applicant sought that Thakur, who is out on bail, be asked to attend court proceedings in Mumbai and barred from contesting the election as the trial is in progress.

It further mentioned that Thakur got bail on health grounds. If she is “healthy enough to fight elections in the crippling summers heat”, then she has misled the court, the complainant alleged.

(With PTI inputs)

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.