Four days after they busted a terror conspiracy, arrested three right-wing activists and seized explosives and other materials, Maharashtra’s Anti- Terrorism Squad (ATS) sleuths have unearthed a mini pistol-assembling unit, recovered more arms and ammunition, and are investigating the arrested persons' links in Uttar Pradesh and Assam.
Intensifying their investigations into the terror conspiracy involving the right-wing Hindu activists, the ATS officers raided the premises of the accused at Nala Sopara and in Pune and seized more arms, ammunition and other incriminating material.
Confirming the seizures of more arms, ammunition and other incriminating material, the ATS sources said here on Monday that apart from unearthing a mini pistol assembling unit, the investigators — during their raid on the residence of key accused Vaibhav Purohit at Nala Sopara on Sunday — seized five country-made pistols, three incomplete pistols, 11 cartridges of nine mm pistols, 30 cartridges of 7.65 mm pistols and scores of loose parts of firearms like springs and triggers.
During the custodial interrogation of the arrested accused, the ATS officials have virtually established that Raut was using his Nala Sopara as a pistol assembling unit. The investigations have revealed that the arrested accused would procure material required for making pistols from Uttar Pradesh and assemble the fire weapons at Raut’s residence.
“The seizure of huge chunk of material required for making pistols establishes the modus operandi adopted by the arrested accused to make pistols. We are also examining the alleged links of the three arrested persons with questionable persons in Uttar Pradesh and Assam,” a senior ATS official said.
Simultaneously, the investigators on Sunday seized 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 and papers from the premises of another accused in Pune.
After raids at various places at Nalla Sophara in the neighbouring Thane district on Thursday night, the ATS had last week arrested three right wing activists --Vaibhav Raut (40), Sharad Kalaskar (25) and Sudhnava Ghondhalekar ( 39)--- and claimed to have foiled the attempts to engineer terror attacks in Mumbai, Pune, Satara, Solapur and Nala Sopara.
During last week’s raids, the ATS sleuths had seized at least 20 explosives and material required for making at least 50 explosives. From 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, ten batteries of six volts and a
“We made the fresh seizure of arms, ammunition and other incriminating material based on the revelations made by the three arrested accused during the custodial interrogation, “a senior ATS official said.
The three arrested right wing activists, who have been booked under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code and Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, will be in ATS’ custody till August 18.
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.
While Raut has been linked the right-wing outfit Sanataba Sanastha, Gondhlekar has alleged links with Sambhaji Bhide-led Shiv Prathishtan. However, the Sanathan Sanastha has hit out at the ATS for falsely implicating Raut in the terror conspiracy, while the Shiv Prathishtan has distanced itself from Raut and Ghondhalekar.
As part of their investigations, the ATS officials are trying to establish if there are more people behind the conspiracy to engineer terror attacks in Mumbai, Pune, Satara, Solapur and Nala Sophara and if they links with right-wing groups in other states like Karnataka. They are also trying to ascertain if the arrested persons enjoyed political patronage.