Bhadrapad Shuddha Dwadashi
If Sanatan & HJS have clarified that they have no connection with bomb blasts and even accused have clarified that they have carried out blasts on their own. Then why ATS wants to continue investigation about involvement of Sanatan and HJS? Will ATS dare to search mosques to find roots of SIMI?
Mumbai: The state Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) investigating the planting of improvised explosive devices at auditoriums in Thane, Vashi and Panvel earlier this year filed a chargesheet against the six arrested accused at the Mazgaon Metropolitan Magistrates Court on Thursday. According to the ATS, while the chargesheet makes no mention of any role played in the terrorist conspiracy on the part of the Sanatan Sanstha — a Hindu revivalist organisation to which the arrested accused were affiliated — further investigations would continue in the matter.
The chargesheet runs into 1,020 pages, with a total of 195 witnesses including police officials named by the ATS. The six arrested accused — Ramesh Hanumant Gadkari (50), Vikram Bhave (26), Mangesh Dinkar Nikam (34), Santosh Angre (26), Hemant Chalke (27) and police patil Hari Bhau Divekar (44) — have been charged with attempt to murder, criminal conspiracy, causing disappearance of evidence and causing damage to property, under the Indian Penal Code, as well as sections of the Arms Act, the Explosive Substances Act, and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. There are no wanted accused mentioned in the chargesheet.
“In our chargesheet we have not mentioned any involvement of the Sanatan Sanstha or its branch, the Hindu Janjagruti Samiti, though the arrested accused were its members. However, our investigations will continue in the matter, and if we find any evidence to suggest a role played by the organisation, we will take necessary action and file a supplementary chargesheet,” said Senior Police Inspector BB Rathod of the ATS.
According to the chargesheet, Gadkari and Bhave were the prime conspirators, and they assembled the bombs with the help of Nikam. The conspiracy was hatched at Panvel and in Warsai village in Pen.
“The motive of the accused mentioned by us in the chargesheet is that they wanted to deter the public from watching the play Aamhi Pachpute and the film Jodhaa Akbar and producers from screening them. They felt that the play and the movie were an affront to Hindu sentiments and that they parodied Hindu deities,” said Rathod.
On June 16, the ATS arrested Gadkari and Nikam, both members of the Sanatan Sanstha and the Hindu Janjagruti Samiti, in connection with the crude bomb planted at Vishnudas Bhave auditorium in Vashi on May 31, and the bomb that exploded at Gadkari Rangayatan auditorium in Thane on June 4. They were also suspected to be involved in the small explosion that took place at a Panvel theatre screening the film Jodhaa Akbar on February 20.
Source: Express India
