Headlines
Pansare murder: Sanatan Sansthan claims being 'targeted'
Mumbai, Sep 18
Under a cloud after one of its
activists was nabbed for the murder of Communist leader Govind Pansare,
right-wing group Sanatan Sanstha on Friday claimed it was being targeted
by political parties with a design to malign its image.
Just
because one person -- Samir V. Gaikwad -- has been arrested on certain
technical grounds, most political parties were making a demand to ban
and kill the Sanatan Sanstha, the organisation's spokesperson Abhay
Vartak told media persons.
"People from the Congress, Nationalist
Congress Party and others never miss the opportunity to malign our
image, though we are a completely patriotic organisation engaged in
nationalist activities," Vartak said, naming several people to justify
his contentions.
The Sanatan Sanstha's self-defence came in the
wake of Gaikwad's arrest in connection with Pansare's murder in
February. He was nabbed from Sangli and is currently in police custody
till September 23.
Vartak said the organisation was fully backing
Gaikwad as he was being wrongly implicated in the case and expressed
confidence that the truth will soon come out.
A Sangharsh Samiti
formed after Pansare's murder met and submitted a memorandum to the
Kolhapur collector demanding a ban on the Sanatan Sanstha.
Lawyers
in Kolhapur have demanded that charges of treason should be invoked
against Gaikwad and have unanimously decided not to fight his case in
court.
In a related development, Maharashtra Police on Thursday
detained two more people -- Sushil Jadhav and Shriram Jadhav -- from
Karnataka in the same case.
Pansare, 81, was shot at from close range in Kolhapur on February 16 and succumbed to the bullet injuries four days later.
His wife Uma, who was also shot at and seriously injured, survived the attack.
Police
raided Gaikwad's residence in Sangli and recovered 23 mobile phones, a
large knife and Sanatan Sanstha literature, while further investigations
are on in other parts of the state.
A police team from Karnataka
has also arrived here to question Gaikwad to ascertain a possible link
between the Pansare killing and the recent murder of Kannada litterateur
M.M. Kalburgi, who was shot dead outside his home in Dharwad on August
30.
Investigators are probing whether the killing of Pune
rationalist Narendra Dabholkar, who was shot dead in August 2013 was
also connected to the murders of Pansare and Kalburgi.
Investigations are on simultaneously in various parts of Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka.