2008 Malegaon case: Congress tried to manufacture saffron terror narrative to humiliate Hindus and for vote-bank politics, says BJP

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday (August 1, 2025) cited the assertion of a former Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) officer, who was concerned within the investigation into the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast, to allege that the then Congress authorities had tried to “fabricate a story of Saffron terror to humiliate Hindus and for vote-bank politics”.

In a press release to the media, former ATS officer Mehboob Mujawar has declare that stress was exerted on him to arrest Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat.

At a press convention, BJP spokesperson and MP Sambit Patra referred to Mr. Mujawar’s remarks to accuse the Congress occasion of doing “vindictive politics”, stating that “the Gandhi household was intent on defaming Sanatan”. He stated the current assertion by senior Congress chief Prithviraj Chavan — that “terrorism has no faith” — was a “well-worn phrase of Congress’s appeasement politics”.

Stating that Mr. Mujawar had made an vital disclosure, the BJP chief stated: “He revealed that high ATS officers and a few influential figures within the then authorities pressured him to push ahead the ‘saffron terror’ narrative in any respect prices and to arrest RSS Sarsanghchalak Shri Mohan Bhagwat below that conspiracy, although his title was nowhere within the chargesheet or the investigation….”

“But Mehboob Mujawar…clearly acknowledged that he wouldn’t act exterior the framework of the Constitution or harm the nation’s democratic material. After this refusal, his personal senior officers framed him with false and critical fees. Some allegations had been imposed on him, leading to his promotion being blocked. Later, Mujawar approached the courtroom, the place he was utterly exonerated. The courtroom additionally dominated that every one allegations in opposition to him had been baseless and malicious,” stated Mr. Patra.

“The Congress authorities on the time had reached new heights of vindictive mentality. Individuals related to the BJP, followers of Hinduism, and senior functionaries of the RSS had been intentionally humiliated, arrested, and focused for private revenge. The Congress was working in a totally retaliatory mode, and all of this was taking place on the behest of the Gandhi household,” he alleged.

He stated former Union Minister Sushilkumar Shinde was the primary to make use of the time period “saffron terror” throughout a Congress occasion conference. “When requested why he stated so and whether or not it was acceptable, he smiled and stated: ‘I now really feel what I stated was unsuitable, however I solely did what my occasion excessive command informed me’…who’s the Congress excessive command? In the Congress occasion, the excessive command is just not an establishment — it is only one household, the Gandhi household. There is just one command, however many faces behind it — Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra,” he stated.

On Thursday, within the Malegaon case, a Mumbai NIA courtroom acquitted all seven accused, together with former BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur and Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit.