Eight former top police officers Sunday strongly condemned the "despicable" remark of BJP's Bhopal Lok Sabha seat candidate Pragya Singh Thakur that her "curse" killed Hemant Karkare, and demanded those who laid down their lives for the country be respected. "This despicable and regrettable statement of Pragya Thakur only serves to highlight the need to publicly recognise the supreme sacrifice made by the 35,000 police personnel from all corners of India who since Independence have laid down their lives in the line of duty," the statement said. The former police officers said Sadhvi Pragya, a contestant from the Bhopal constituency, made some unfortunate remarks referring to the late Karkare. "We also urge them to commit, to engaging with every effort to improve the delivery of policing services to their constituents." Addressing BJP workers in Bhopal last week, Thakur had claimed that Karkare died during the attack as she had "cursed" him for "torturing" her when he probed the Malegaon blast case as the chief of the ATS.

Source: dna April 21, 2019 16:18 UTC