Pragya Thakur barred from campaigning for 72 hours

The Election Commission on Wednesday barred Bharatiya Janata Party candidate from Bhopal Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur from campaigning for 72 hours for her remarks on former anti-terror squad chief Hemant Karkare and Babri mosque demolition.

The panel "strongly condemned" her remarks and warned her "not to repeat the misconduct in future".

The EC said though Pragya had apologised for her statement against the slain IPS officer, it found the statement to be "unwarranted".

The ban would come into force from 6.00 AM, May 2 (Thursday).

The Malegaon blast accused had said Karkare was killed in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack because of her "curse" as he "tortured" her when he probed the case as chief of the ATS.

She also had said that she was "proud" of her participation in the demolition of the Babri mosque at Ayodhya in 1992.

In her response to the show cause notice on Karkare, she had said that the idea was to tell people how she was tortured allegedly at the behest of the Congress-led UPA government. She said she holds the right to tell people what she had gone through.

On Babri mosque, she said she had no intentions of creating divide between people and her statement only reflects her inner voice.

The EC found her statements to be "provocative" and having the potential to "spread hatred".

The Commission felt the statements were aimed at securing votes on "religious grounds".

Bhopal will vote in phase 6 of Lok Sabha elections on May 12.

Pragya is pitted against Congress leader Digvijay Singh.