Goa-based Sanatan Sanstha has accused the police of a witchhunt to nail the organisation, after one of its members Samir Gaikwad was arrested in connection with the murder of communist leader and rationalist Govind Pansare.
Sanatan Sanstha managing trustee Virendra Marathe, in a statement, said Gaikwad was arrested in suspicious circumstances. “The police have purposefully arrested him by going through 2 crore call data records and searching only the number of the Sanatan’s seeker under pressure from the anti-Sanatan elements.
Earlier, enquiry of many seekers of Sanatan was also conducted in case of the killing of Dr. Dabholkar.
Sanatan Sanstha also faced similar criticism on earlier occasions. However, no output came out of these inquiries. Samir Gaikwad is arrested on the basis of suspicion,” said Marathe. The Sanatan Sanstha, which has also been accused to plotting a bomb attack on pre-Diwali celebrations in Goa is headquarterd in Ponda in Goa 35 kms from Panaji. “Samir Gaikwad, arrested by the Police in case of the killing of Comrade Govind Pansare from Kolhapur is a full-time seeker of Sanatan Sanstha, and we are sure that he is innocent and not guilty,” Marathe said.
Gaikwad’s wife is also a member of the fundamentalist organisation and resides at the Goa ashram.
Gaikwad was arrested by a Special Investigating Team of the police in Maharashtra which is probing Pansare’s murder in February this year.
Sanatan Sanstha’s possible role in the murder of rationalist Narendra Dabolkar in Pune, was also probed by the Maharashtra police. “Earlier, inquiry of many seekers of Sanatan was also conducted in case of the killing of Dr. Dabholkar.
Sanatan Sanstha also faced similar criticism on earlier occasions. However, no output came out of these inquiries,” Marathe said. The Sanstha also also tried to pick holes in the manner of Gaikwad’s “suspicious” arrest which Marathe said was a “conspiracy to implicate innocent Samir Gaikwad”.
“When anybody is arrested, he is questioned and verified during initial 24 hours and then produced before the Court within next 24 hours For this purpose, the Police have to prepare papers for seeking his remand, which may take few hours,” Marathe said, adding that Samir was immediately whisked to court after his arrest.
“This means the remand papers were prepared beforehand itself. This goes to show that the entire matter is a conspiracy… This is a serious matter and raises the question mark over the operating procedure of the Police,” Marathe said.
In the recent past, six members of the Sanatan Sanstha have also been accused of trying to carry out an improvised explosive device blast in 2009, in which two of its own members were killed.
All six were however acquitted after police failed to prove the charges.