Two days after Sadhvi Pragya ruffled many feathers for calling 26/11 martyr Hemant Karkare's death as karma and that she cursed him, she issued an apology on Friday (April 19) night and added that she will withdraw her statement.
Saying that she felt her enemies were benefitting from her comments, Sadhvi Pragya told reporters, "I felt that the enemies of the country were being benefited from it, therefore I take back my statement and apologise for it, it was my personal pain."
She then said, "He (Hemant Karkare) died from the bullets of terrorists from the enemy country, he is certainly a martyr,"
On Thursday, Pragya was an accused in the 2008 Malegaon Blast Case, had accused Hemant Karkare of torturing her when she was jailed. Karkare was killed during the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks in November 2008.
She said, "The investigation team called Hemant Karkare and said if you do not have evidence, let her go. He said, I will do anything to get evidence against her. I won't let her go. This was his hatred (kuteelta). He was anti-national. He was dharam virudh (anti-religion). You won't believe, but I said, 'tera sarvanashhoga'. Just after 'sawa' month, terrorists killed him."
Pragya's comments got the entire country in an uproar who called out the sanyasin for her callous remarks and said that Karkare was nothing but a martyr who died fighting for his country.
Ashok Chakra awardee late Sri Hemant Karkare, IPS made the supreme sacrifice fighting terrorists. Those of us in uniform condemn the insulting statement made by a candidate and demand that sacrifices of all our martyrs be respected," the IPS Association tweeted on Friday as a reply to Sadhvi's comments.
Sadhvi Pragya was fielded by the Bharatiya Janata Party in April to contest in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh. She will be facing Congress' Digvijaya Singh on May 12. She was also a prime accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case. While the investigation showed that the bomb was kept in her bike. However, she was let off the hook by the National Investigation Agency and she is currently out on bail.
