Dewas (MP): RSS activist Sunil Joshi was eliminated by fellow Hindu hardliners including Malegaon blast accused sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur for his "high-handedness and the fear" that his arrest would unmask right-wing plotters of explosions in several parts of the country.
This has been stated in the 432-page charge sheet filed by the police before Judicial Magistrate Padmesh Shah here on Monday which says the sadhvi was peeved with Joshi as he had personally misbehaved with her and "his overall behaviour was something not expected by a woman".
Coming a day after Devas police formally arrested Thakur for the 2007 murder of the RSS 'pracharak', the charge sheet with 89 annexures also contains statements of 124 witnesses. Thakur, under arrest in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, is undergoing treatment at J J Hospital in Mumbai.
The charge sheet has been filed against Thakur, Anand Raj Kataria, Harshad Solanki, Vasudev Parmar and Ramchandra Patel under various sections of IPC including 302 (murder) and 120B (criminal conspiracy), besides the Arms Act.
Two other accused in the case Mehul and Rakesh, both hailing from Gujarat are still absconding.
Thakur, the charge sheet says, apart from alleging that Joshi misbehaved with her "confessed" to Devas police in Mumbai that he was misusing the money that came to him from party and other sources.
According to the charge sheet, another reason that provoked the accused to kill Joshi was the "ill-treatment" he meted out to the Harshad, Mehul, Rakesh and Ustad, absconders of the Best Bakery case in which 14 people were burnt alive at Vadodara on March 1, 2002, at the height of post-Godhra communal frenzy in Gujarat. The four, who were hiding with Joshi in Dewas, were often abused by him, it said.
The charge sheet also claims that on the day of Joshi's murder, Pragya was in Indore and her mobile call records show that she was in constant touch with accused.
Joshi was shot dead by Harshad Solanki in the presence of others at an abandoned brick kiln, it says, adding after committing the crime Harshad and his associates left in a vehicle provided by Anand Raj Kataria.
Pragya emerged as a major suspect in Joshi's murder after his relatives claimed she had come to their house on the day of the murder and had taken away his suitcase. She was also seen in the hospital where Joshi's body was brought.
Joshi, whose name figured in the Mecca Masjid, Samjhauta and Malegaon blast cases was killed on December 29, 2007 here.
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