[Reader-list] I was tortured, made to see obscene CD: Sadhvi

[Pawan Durani]

' What a selective difference I can see
'.........................................

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/i-was-tortured-made-to-see-obscene-cd-sadhvi/78906-3.html

*Mumbai:* Malegaon blast accused Sadhvi Pragya Thakur on Monday charged the
Maharashtra Police's Anti-Terrorism Squad with making her hear an obscene CD
and repeated her earlier allegation that the agency had tortured her.

Thakur alleged there was no lady officer present during her interrogation
and the officials made her watch an obscene CD.

Thakur along with seven other accused, Lt Col Prasad Purohit, Shivnarain
Singh Kalsangra, Shyam Sahu, Sameer Kulkarni, Major (retired) Ramesh
Upadhyay, Ajay Rahirkar and Rakesh Dhawde were produced before the
designated MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organised Crimes Act) court in
Mumbai on Monday.

Upadhyay told the court that A N Roy, Director General of Maharashtra
Police, met him on October 26 and threatened that his men would beat him up
if he did not confess to the blast.

Kalsangra and Sahu too alleged that they had been tortured.

The ATS had last week booked the accused under the MCOCA that would enable
them to get their remand any number of times in a period of 180 days from
the date the September 29 offence was registered.

The allegations made by the Sadhvi in the affidavit her lawyer Avinash Bhide
filed in the Nashik court last week have already raised a political storm
across the country.

While Prime Minister Manmohan Singh telephoned senior Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) leader L.K. Advani after the latter hit out at the ATS for meting out
barbaric treatment to the Sadhvi, his emissary, National Security Advisor M
K Narayanan assured Advani of a probe into the Sadhvi's allegations.

Another key accused Purohit also repeated his earlier allegation of torture
against the ATS.

A third accused, retired Major Ramesh Upadhyay told the court that
Maharashtra DGP AN Roy forced a confession out of him.

Upadhyay says Roy met him on October 26 and told him that his men will beat
him up if he doesn't confess to having a hand in the blast. In fact Upadhyay
says Additional Commisioner of Police Parambir Singh did beat him with
shoes.

Similar charges of torture were repeated by the other accused Shivnarayan
Singh and Shyam Bhavarlal Sahu.