Sadhvi Pragya diagnosed with breast cancer

Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, one of the prime accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case and the Sunil Joshi murder case, has been diagnosed with breast cancer, according to a report from the Jawaharlal Nehru Cancer Hospital in Bhopal.

A mammography test on her confirmed the ailment on Wednesday, doctors attending on her said.

Doctors at the hospital have advised her to get admitted for further treatment. Pragya, who reportedly held discussions with doctors at the hospital, said she would get admitted only after performing some rituals.

Superintendent of Bhopal Central Jail M R Patel, where Pragya has been lodged, said the authorities can not hospitalise her without her consent.

Pragya was brought from Mumbai to Bhopal last year for the murder trial of former Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh worker Sunil Joshi.

Joshi had been killed in Dewas on December 29, 2007, following which a case was registered against Pragya and others by the Madhya Pradesh police. The investigation into the case was later taken over by the National Investigation Agency.

Pragya is one of the prime accused in the Malegaon blasts case of September 29, 2008, in which six people were killed and 100 others injured.

On January 19, 2009, the Maharashtra police filed a charge-sheet for the Malegaon blast case. According to the charge-sheet, Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit was the main conspirator who provided the explosives and Pragya deployed people to plant the explosives.