As CBI Tightens Noose Around Dabholkar's Killers, Sanatan Sanstha Says Not Our Members

Mumbai: Right-wing organisation Sanatan Sanstha has distanced itself from all the nine accused arrested so far by the Maharashtra ATS in the Nalasopara explosives case and the Narendra Dabholkar murder case.

The group’s spokesperson Chetan Rajhans said none of the accused are members of Sanatan Sanstha. “We are hearing some names for the first time. Some of them have participated in our events, but are not our members,” he told News18.

Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, another right-wing organisation whose name has surfaced during the ATS probe, blamed the families of Dabholkar and Govind Pansare for influencing the investigation.

Sunil Ghanwat of the Samiti said, "We exposed the corruption of these people, so the families of Dabholkar and Pansare along with Congress leader Vikhe Patil are taking revenge by targeting us," he claimed.

The two organisations said they had nothing to do with any terror activity and were purely religious groups. They also demanded that the word 'secular' be removed from the Constitution, claiming that it was being used against the Hindus.

Rajhans said the words 'socialist' and 'secular' were added in the Constitution by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. "So, if there is a provision to add words, these can also be removed by the same provisions," he said.

Meanwhile, CBI team investigating the murder of Dabholkar is likely to take the custody of Sharad Kalaskar from Maharashtra ATS. CBI suspects that Kalaskar and Sachin Andure were the ones who shot Dabholkar.

Kalaskar was arrested by Maharashtra ATS on August 10 from Nalasopara along with Vaibhav Raut. During interrogation, Kalaskar had revealed about his role in Dabholkar’s murder, police said. He also named Andure, who was arrested soon after by the CBI, as one of the key players.

The CBI wants to confront Andure with Kalaskar to find out details about the murder. The investigators are also probing if the 7.65 mm country made pistol recovered from the house of Andure's friend was used in any of the murders.

The CBI team is also likely to take the custody of Amol Kale from Karnataka SIT probing the Gauri Lankesh case. Amol Kale, resident of Chinchwad near Pune, was arrested by the Karnataka SIT.

It is suspected that Amol Kale recruited shooters for the murders of Dr Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare, MM Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh.