As if the controversy over BJP ticket to terror accused Sadhvi Pragya Thakur was not enough, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday cited the Samjhauta Express blast case to drub the notion of ‘Hindu terror’. 

Without naming Swami Assemanand, the key accused in the case who along with others was acquitted recently by a court in Panchkula near here, Modi said ‘innocent people were kept in jail for years.

“Congress Hindu terror was a lie,” he said addressing a public gathering in Haryana’s Kurukshetra on Wednesday. 

Modi added that the Congress exposed itself and, in the attempt, the real terrorists found a window to escape. The PM’s sympathy of sorts for terror accused eventually acquitted by the court for want of evidence is likely to invite strong reactions. 

In 2007, several dozens of people, mostly Pakistani nationals, were killed in the blast in Panipat. No one was held guilty. The perpetrators continue to remain out of the reach of Justice.