Maharashtra’s Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) sleuths have arrested a 30-year-old man from Ghatkopar in north-east Mumbai for his alleged involvement in a terror conspiracy busted by them earlier this month
Accused Avinash Pawar, said to be an employee with a state-run ship-building company who was arrested late on Friday night, was on Saturday afternoon produced before a city court which remanded in the ATS’ custody till August 31.
With Pawar’s arrest, the total number of the arrests in the terror conspiracy case that the ATS uncovered on August 9 has gone up to five. Earlier, the ATS had arrested three right wing activists —Vaibhav Raut (40), Sharad Kalaskar (25), Sudhnava Ghondhalekar (39) and claimed to have foiled their attempts to engineer terror attacks in Mumbai, Pune, Satara, Solapur and Nala Sopara. Subsequently, the ATS arrested and Shiv Sena’s former corporator Shrikant Pangarkar for his alleged role in the conspiracy.
During two rounds of seizures made since August 9, the ATS sleuths had earlier seized at least 22 explosives, material required for making at least 50 explosives, 22 country-made pistols, one laptop, six hard-disks, five pen drives, nine mobiles and many SIM cards, a WiFI dongle, a car, a motorcycle and huge chunk of incriminating documents.
The investigators had also unearthed a mini pistol assembling unit at Raut's Nala Sopara residence and found out the arrested activists would procure matterial required for making pistols and explosives from Uttar Pradesh.
From key accused Raut’s premises alone, the investigators had seized 12 indigenous explosives, two gelatine sticks, four electronic detonators, 22 non-electronic detonators, safety fuse wires, 1500 grams of white powder, two bottles of poison and ten batteries of six volts.
While Raut and Kalaskar are residents from Nalla Sophara, Gondhalekar hails from Satara in western Maharashtra. Raut was arrested from Nala Sophara, Kalaskar and Gondhlekar were picked up from Vasai. Raut has been linked the right-wing outfit Sanataba Sanastha, while Gondhlekar has alleged links with Sambhaji Bhide-led Shiv Prathishtan.
Pangarkar was arrested from Jalna in Marathwada region on August 19. The seized a pen drive, hard disks and some incriminating documents were recovered from Pangarkar’s residence at Jalna and found prima facie that he was allegedly funding the three accused arrested earlier
During the interrogations of the three initially arrested accused, it was revealed that Pangarkar had helped assemble the explosives and store them. He had also allegedly funded the questionable activities of the arrested accused.
On its part, the Shiv Sena has distanced itself from Pangarkar by saying that it had no links with him for six to seven years now. Pangarkar was a Sena corporator in the Jalna Municipal Council for two terms from December 2001 to December 2011.
All the five arrested right wing activists, including Pawar, have been booked under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code and Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.
Meanwhile, the ATS sleuths are trying to establish the exact role by the fifth and latest accused Pawar in the terror conspiracy.