The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday (23 April), in response to a plea filed in a NIA court, said that it had not found sufficient evidence to prosecute Sadhvi Pragya Thakur over the Malegaon blasts and that it was up to the Election Commission to decide whether she can contest poll or not, reports Times of India.

According to the report, last week an application was filed in the special NIA court by Nisar Bilal, whose son Sayyed Ahmed died in the blast, to bar Pragya, who is fighting elections from Bhopal on Bharatiya Janata Party ticket, from contesting polls as the trial against her was pending.

The NIA, in its response to the plea urging to bar Pragya from contesting elections, said that it had no jurisdiction in the matter as fighting polls was unrelated to the case, and it did not want to offer comments on the plea as it was related to the Election Commission. “It (whether she can contest) can be decided by the EC only,” the NIA said, as reported by TOI.

The NIA further noted that in its 2016 supplementary chargesheet, it had not found sufficient evidence to prosecute Sadhvi Pragya.

“It was pertinent to mention that in the supplementary chargesheet dated May 13, 2016, NIA has recommended the prosecution against 10 accused… and recommended the evidences against Pragya and …(five others) were not found sufficient and as such the prosecution against them was not maintainable,” the NIA said.

NIA in 2016 had given a clean chit to Sadhvi Pragya in the Malegaon Blast case in its supplementary chargesheet