Panaji, Jun 27(TOI): Union minister of state for parliamentary affairs and BJP senior leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Friday said the statement of Rohini Salian, the special public prosecutor in the 2008 Malegaon blasts case, is a conspiracy against the Union government.

He said the government is ready to discuss all issues if the opposition so wants in the upcoming parliamentary session. "Disturbance in parliament will not gain the Congress," Naqvi added, advising the party to "relax on Goa's beaches to come out of the depression" of their defeat in the Lok Sabha elections.

Naqvi was in Goa to "highlight the 40th year of the undemocratic imposition of emergency in the country". Addressing a press conference at the state BJP's headquarters in Panaji, he said the law will take its own course (in the Malegaon blasts case), the innocent will not be punished and criminals will not be spared.

Salian sparked off controversy by saying that ever since the governments changed at the Centre and the state (Maharashtra) she has been under pressure from the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to go "soft" on the case.

"Who has given the statement? Why has it been given? What is the motive behind the statement?" Naqvi questioned, "Where is the question of going slow or fast in the case? The trial has not started."

He further stated, "I am not making an allegation against anyone, but her (Salian) statement is contradictory. She herself has contradicted the statement that someone has told her to go slow in the case. We feel this is a conspiracy planned from different corners."

The Malegaon blasts on September 29, 2008, killed four persons and injured another 79. Investigations initially cast suspicions on the involvement of a minority community. But the probe, under then ATS chief Hemant Karkare, who was killed in the 26/11 terror strikes in the same year, suspected the involvement of right-wing extremists and arrested Sadhvi Pragya Thakur and others.