New Delhi: Two recent viral videos of terror-accused BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur – one her playing basketball and another of her dancing at a wedding – have raised questions on her previous claim that she is too ill to appear before the court hearing the Malegaon blasts case.
Thakur spent nine years in jail in 2008 Malegaon blasts case before being granted bail in 2017. As The Wire has reported before, her time in jail too saw her receiving multiple special favours – including being served by other prisoners.
In 2019, the BJP gave her a Lok Sabha ticket from Bihar and she won the election. In January this year, the special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Mumbai had granted Thakur exemption from physical appearance to till further orders. She had appeared before the special court on January 4 and filed an application seeking permanent exemption on medical and other grounds.
Six people were killed and 100 injured when an explosive device strapped to a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Malegaon in north Maharashtra on September 29, 2008.
In the most recent viral video, according to NDTV, Thakur is dancing at a twin wedding she helped organise, at her MP’s residence. Earlier this week, in a separate video, Thakur was seen dribbling a basketball, walking around and scoring a basket. Usually, she moves around in a wheelchair.
The recent videos have caught the Congress party’s attention. “Whenever we see the Bhopal MP, sister Pragya Thakur, play basketball and walking without support or dancing happily like this, it makes us happy…?” Congress spokesperson Narendra Saluja tweeted in Hindi.
When the first video was shared, he had tweeted, “We had only just seen Bhopal MP Pragya Thakur in a wheelchair but today, we feel very happy to see her trying her hand at basketball at the Bhopal stadium…So far we knew she couldn’t walk or even stand properly because of an injury…? May god always keep her healthy…”
This story first appeared on thewire.in