Sadhvi Pragya has one more legal hurdle: The Sunil Joshi murder case

New Delhi, May 14: For Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, there is still one legal hurdle remaining before she could walk out of jail.

While the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has dropped charges against her in the 2008 Malegaon blasts case, she will still have to fight out the Sunil Joshi murder case in which she is an accused.

Ganesh Sovani, senior counsel and Sadhvi's former advocate tells OneIndia that a major hurdle has been crossed in the Malegaon case, but she is yet to get bail in the Sunil Joshi murder case.

The NIA had filed charges against 8 persons including Sadhvi Pragya in connection with the murder of a Hindu activist Sunil Joshi. The NIA stated in the chargesheet that Joshi was murdered as he had made sexual advances towards Pragya.

The next course of action:

Sovani explains that the next course of action would be to obtain bail in the Joshi case. With regard to the Malegaon case, it has come as huge relief for all of us and the NIA has basically stated what we were stating all along.

Now with the NIA stating that there are no charges being pressed against Sadhvi, it is for the court to endorse the chargesheet.

Courts can take a different view, but in normal course they do not dispute the chargesheet filed by the investigating agency. The others who can oppose this chargesheet in the court are the victims and also the ATS which first probed the case, Sovani also says.

With the NIA now not pressing charges, she can claim compensation. I must remind you that there is a petition pending with the NHRC since the past five years in which she has sought for compensation. However that matter has not moved an inch till date, Sovani says.

However for now this is a major relief for all of us. The Malegaon case was a major one with all sort of stringent charges being slapped on her. It is a victory for all us and we are extremely happy, Sovani points out.

OneIndia News