Sanatan Sanstha — a right-wing outfit that had along opposed Narendra Dabholkar in his life time — on Wednesday vehemently denied the allegations of its involvement in the murder of the renowned rationalist, who was shot dead by two unidentified assailants in Pune on Tuesday.
Dubbing the allegations in certain quarters that it might have had a hand in the killing of Dabholkar as “mischief” played by the detractors of his organisation, Sanstha spokesperson Abhay Vartak said: “…the murder of Dabholkar is as shocking as the accusations of certain gentlemen in media and progressive movements to hold Sanatan Sanstha responsible for this incident. Indiscriminate accusations hurled at Sanatan Sanstha before any investigation takes place in the incident or without the existence of any proof is a defamation of Sanatan Sanstha”.
Denying media reports, Vartak said: “None of the Sanstha activist has ever made a statement: We will make another Gandhi of Dr. Dabholkar’ at any point in time”.
“We had all along democratically opposed the atheist (Anti-dharma) thoughts of Dabholkar and his methods to propagate them. We had even published two texts “‘Ego of Intellectuals’ and ‘Proposed “Anti-superstition Bill” — Assault on the foundation of Hindu faith’, opposing the anti-superstition Bill pushed by Dabbolkar. Whatever we did was through legal means that included lodging of a complaint in a police station,” Vartak said.
“Sanstha will file defamation suits against the elements, who are indulging in mischief to hold our organisation responsible for Dabholkar’s death, “the Sanstha spokesperson added.