New Delhi, April 16: The Congress on Monday said that neither its President Rahul Gandhi nor any other party functionary ever used the term "saffron terror" and that its adversaries were levelling baseless allegations in this regard.

"Show me a video or a sound clip where Rahul Gandhi or any other Congress functionary is seen using the term ‘Bhagva aatankwad' (saffron terror). There is no such thing as saffron terror," Congress Spokesman P.L. Punia said.

"We believe that terrorism cannot be associated with any religion or community," he added.

The Congress' response came after a National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Hyderabad acquitted all five accused in the city's Mecca Masjid blast case in which nine persons were killed and 50 injured during the Friday prayers in 2007.

Hindu right-wing group Abhinav Bharat members Nabakumar Sarkar alias Swamy Aseemanand, Devender Gupta, Lokesh Sharma, Bharat Mohanlal Rateshwar alias Bharat Bhai and Rajender Chowdhary, who were charged by the NIA, were all acquitted.

However, Punia said that questions remained over how the confessional statements and many other documents went missing from the prosecution's files.

"But it won't be proper to comment before going through the complete order of the court. But the court has said that the prosecution has failed to prove the case," Punia said.

Soon after the court's order, the BJP accused the Congress of "defaming" the Hindu religion by coining the term "saffron terror" and demanded apologies from Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi. 

Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.



Ranchi(PTI): The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has emerged as a surprise element in the Jharkhand assembly elections with its candidates leading in five of the six seats where the party is contesting, according to trends available on the Election Commission's website on Saturday.

RJD candidates in five assembly seats were leading over sitting BJP legislators.

In 2019, RJD had secured only the Chatra seat where its nominee Satyanand Bhokta won.

In Deoghar, RJD’s Suresh Paswan was leading by 19,581 votes over his nearest rival and BJP's sitting MLA Narayan Das after the third round of counting.

RJD’s Sanjay Prasad Yadav was ahead by 19,867 votes in Godda over BJP MLA Amit Kumar Mandal after the sixth round of counting.

In Koderma, RJD nominee Subhash Prasad Yadav, who was out on bail, was leading by a margin of 3,471 votes over BJP’s sitting legislator Neera Yadav.

Subhas Prasad Yadav, considered to be one of the close aides of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, was recently granted bail by the Supreme Court in a money laundering case.

Party’s Naresh Prasad Singh was leading by 5,159 votes after the fourth round of counting over BJP’s Bishrampur MLA Ramchandra Chandravanshi.

RJD's Sanjay Kumar Singh Yadav was also leading from Hussainabad by 8,213 votes after the fourth round of counting over BJP MLA Kamlesh Kumar Singh.

Party’s candidate Rashmi Prakash, however, was trailing from Chatra by 3,776 votes.

Bhokta did not contest the elections this time, and his daughter-in-law Prakash was given a ticket.