Watch: Teary-eyed Uma Bharti consoles Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur after emotional meeting

Malegaon accused and BJP’s Bhopal candidate Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur had an emotional meeting with Union Minister Uma Bharti. The minister was seen consoling Thakur as they both wept and hugged in front of dozens of camera. The video of the Sunday meeting has surfaced online a day later. Yesterday after meeting, Bharti had said that Thakur is incomparable. She was replying to a question on whether Pragya Singh Thakur will take her place in Madhya Pradesh politics. “She is a great saint, don't compare me with her, I am just an ordinary and foolish creature,” news agency ANI quoted Uma Bharti as saying.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded her from Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh. Thakur, an accused in the Malegaon blast case, had recently claimed that Karkare died during the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks as she had ‘cursed’ him for ‘torturing’ her. Former chief minister and Congress candidate from Bhopal Lok Sabha constituency, Digvijaya Singh, took a dig at Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur on Sunday over her remarks against late ATS chief Hemant Karkare saying ‘why she is not cursing terrorist Masood Azhar’.

"Thakur says she had cursed ATS chief Hemant Karkare, who had given supreme sacrifice for the country and is considered a martyr. There would have been no need of surgical strikes if she had cursed Pakistan based terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar," Singh was quoted as saying by ANI. 

Last week, addressing a gathering of BJP workers at Manas Bhawan auditorium in Bhopal, Thakur, who spent several years in jail after being arrested in the case, alleged she was illegally detained and beaten up by police personnel.

"Jab Mujhe Lekar Gaye, Gair Kanooni Taur Par, 13 Din Tak Rakkha, Pahle Hi Din Bina Kuchh Poochhe, Unhone Mujhe Bulaya, Itna Chauda Belt (showing size by her hand), Ek Belt Se Hath Sooj Jata hai, Doosre Belt Me to Hath Fat Jata Hai. (Police illegally detained me for 13 days. They called me and beat me with a wide belt. Hands get swollen just by one hit of the belt. The second strike can tear hand)," she said. "Ye Jo Belt Marte The, Poora Nervous System Dheela Pad Jata Tha, Sunn Pad Jata Tha, Ye Din Aur Raat Hota Tha. (The strike of belt makes nervous system go blank, this happened day and night)," she said in a choked voice.

"They used to hurl filthy abuses, would threaten to hang me upside down, undress me. I am not narrating my pain in front of you, I am just saying no other sister should face this kind of ordeal," Thakur said, wiping her tears. The Hindutva activist claimed the police wanted her to admit that she was involved in the blast in Malegaon, a town in Nashik district of neighbouring Maharashtra. "They want me to accept that I carried out the blast and killed Muslims...they tortured me entire night, the people who beat me changed in the morning but I remained the same," she had said.