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Hindustan Times
5 days ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
2013 Pune murder: Dabholkar murder convict tells HC there's no evidence against him
MUMBAI: Sharad Kalaskar, 31, who was convicted in May 2024 by a Pune trial court for the 2013 murder of rationalist and anti-superstition activist Dr Narendra Dabholkar, told the Bombay High Court on Thursday that no prima facie case had been established against him during the investigation and that no evidence was led against him at trial. 2013 Pune murder: Dabholkar murder convict tells HC there's no evidence against him Kalaskar has filed an appeal against his conviction and sought bail before a division bench of justice Suman Shyam and justice Shyam Chandak. Appearing on Kalaskar's behalf, advocate Nitin Pradhan argued that the prosecution had failed to produce any evidence linking his client to the Sanatan Sanstha, a Hindu nationalist organisation that has been under scrutiny for its alleged role in the murder. Dr Dabholkar, founder of the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (MANS), was shot dead on the morning of August 20, 2013, during a routine walk in Pune. The killing was allegedly carried out by two men on a motorcycle, later identified as Kalaskar and Sachin Andure—both reportedly affiliated with the Sanstha. While both were convicted earlier this year, the court had also criticised investigative agencies for failing to identify the masterminds behind the plot. Sanatan Sanstha has also been linked to the killings of other prominent rationalists and thinkers, including CPI leader Govind Pansare and scholar MM Kalburgi. In the Dabholkar case, three other accused—Virendrasingh Tawade, Sanjeev Punalkar and Vikram Bhave—were acquitted due to lack of evidence. During Thursday's hearing, Kalaskar's counsel questioned several aspects of the investigation and trial. He submitted that the firearm allegedly used in the crime was recovered in August 2013 at the instance of two other individuals—Vikas Khandelwal and Manish Nagori—but neither the weapon nor the duo were mentioned in the chargesheet or examined during trial. Though the firearm was sent for forensic testing, the prosecution failed to establish any ballistic link between the gun and the pellets recovered from Dr Dabholkar's body, Kalaskar claimed. He also argued that key police officers involved in registering the FIR and conducting the investigation were not examined by the prosecution, and thus could not be cross-examined during trial. Kalaskar further pointed out that several alleged conspirators had been acquitted and that the weapon said to have been used in the shooting was never formally introduced as evidence during the trial. The high court has posted the matter for further hearing on August 21.
Hindustan Times
01-08-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Malegaon blast accused trained Gauri Lankesh murder suspects, Karnataka SIT finds: Report
The names of two absconding accused in the 2006 and 2008 Malegaon blast case, Ramchandra Kalsangra and Sandeep Dange, surfaced during the Karnataka Police's investigation into the 2017 murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh, according to findings submitted by the Special Investigation Team (SIT). The SIT alleges they trained attendees at covert camps run by groups connected to Sanatan Sanstha, contributing to a network targeting ideological opponents. Both men, also wanted in the 2007 Mecca Masjid and Ajmer Sharif blast cases, are suspected to have served as trainers at covert arms and explosives camps attended by several of the 17 people arrested for Lankesh's murder, Indian Express reported. (Also Read: DK Shivakumar says over 9,700 garbage complaints resolved in Bengaluru, residents react) These training camps were organised by groups linked to Sanatan Sanstha between 2011 and 2017, with five camps in Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Gujarat attended by 'guest trainers,' the SIT chargesheet states. Kalsangra and Dange, linked to the right-wing group Abhinav Bharat, are among seven men connected to multiple bombings from 2006 to 2009 who have disappeared. Others include Amit Hakla (alias Ashwini Chauhan), wanted in the Samjhauta and Malegaon cases, and Sanatan Sanstha-linked Sarang Akolkar, Rudra Patil, and Jay Prakash, all wanted in the 2009 Goa blast case. The Karnataka SIT, based on statements from accused and witnesses, created sketches of the guest trainers. One of them, Suresh Nair, an Abhinav Bharat member and accused in the 2007 Ajmer blast, was arrested in Gujarat in 2018 and identified as 'Bade Babaji,' a trainer who attended camps in Gujarat and Jalna. His arrest suggested that Dange and Kalsangra could have similarly posed as trainers at these camps. The SIT also linked training activities to other murders, including those of Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare, and M M Kalburgi, claiming a covert group aligned with Sanatan Sanstha and Hindu Janajagruti Samiti operated a network to eliminate ideological opponents. The camps provided training in IEDs, subterfuge, and arms use. Arrested persons described trainers with titles like 'Babaji' and 'Guruji,' dressed as monks. The SIT's 9,235-page chargesheet, filed in November 2018, states that Sanatan Sanstha members followed militant Hindutva ideology guided by the group's publication Kshatra Dharma Sadhana. One witness turned hostile during the ongoing trial in May 2025, but the SIT maintains that missing Malegaon accused played a crucial role in creating a trained ideological cell. (Also Read: Karnataka HC lifts media gag in Dharmasthala mass burials case, calls it unconstitutional)
Indian Express
01-08-2025
- Indian Express
Names of 2 missing Malegaon blasts cases accused popped up during probe into Gauri Lankesh murder
The names of two absconding men, who were accused in the 2006 and 2008 Malegaon blasts cases, also surfaced during the Karnataka Police's investigation into the murder of 55-year-old journalist Gauri Lankesh outside her home in Bengaluru in September 2017. Ramchandra Kalsangra and Sandeep Dange, who are also wanted in the 2007 Hyderabad Mecca Masjid blast case, and the 2007 Ajmer Sharif blast case, were suspected to be among the four men who trained some of the 17 men, arrested in the Gauri Lankesh case, at secret camps where training was provided to recruits to make bombs. Kalsangara and Dange, who are linked to the right-wing outfit Abhinav Bharat, are also among seven men linked to multiple terrorism cases in the country between 2006 and 2009 who have disappeared in the last 15 years. The others are Ramesh alias Amit alias Ashok alias Ashwini Chauhan who is also linked to Abhinav Bharat and wanted in the 2006 Malegaon blasts and the 2007 Samjhauta Express blasts cases; Jay Prakash alias Anna, Praveen Limkar, Sarang Akolkar, and Rudra Patil are all linked to the Sanatan Sanstha and wanted in a 2009 Goa blast case where a member of the group was killed. During the course of its investigations into Gauri Lankesh's murder, the Karnataka Police Special Invstigation Team (SIT) found that a Sanatan Sanstha linked group organised 19 training camps in the usage of firearms, Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), and subterfuge tactics across India between 2011 and 2017 with 'guest trainers' attending five of the camps held in Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Karnataka. Based on descriptions provided by those arrested and witnesses in the Gauri Lankesh case who saw the 'bomb experts' at the training camps, Karnataka SIT prepared sketches of the 'guest trainers,' and identified their possible locations through technical analysis, police sources said in 2018. 'Most of the pictures available for the missing suspects from the blast cases that occurred between 2006 and 2008 were very old. Portraits were created in March 2018 from descriptions provided by persons arrested in Karnataka, and this helped in finding one of the 'guest trainers,' said a police source. As many as three people linked to Sanatan Sanstha who were arrested in the Gauri Lankesh murder case, and four witnesses who attended these training camps described the presence of a 'bade babaji' and four other 'gurujis' at the camps, according to documents placed in court by the Karnataka Police in the Gauri Lankesh case. According to statements provided by these men, some of the trainers, like the 'bade babaji', dressed as monks. Each trainer had his own area of expertise, ranging from petrol bombs to sophisticated pipe bombs with electrical circuits. One of the several missing men named in the terror cases between 2006 and 2009, Suresh Nair, 45, who is linked to Abhinav Bharat and the 2007 Ajmer blast case, was arrested by the Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in the state's Bharuch in November 2018. Nair's arrest came after he was identified during the investigation into the Gauri Lankesh murder case by the Karnataka Police as one of four trainers who attended the weapons training camps. Suresh Nair was identified as the 'bade babaji' after his arrest in Gujarat. Nair's arrest, 11 years after he went into hiding, also suggested that the other unidentified trainers at the camps who came in the garb of 'babajis' could possibly be Sandeep Dange and Ramji Kalsangra. Based on the investigations through the sketches, there are suggestions that two of the mystery trainers who have not been identified or arrested may have been the missing Kalsangara and Dange, who may have attended the camps as trainers like their associate Suresh Nair. However, there were claims in Maharashtra in 2016 that the men were dead. Dange, a former RSS worker, is considered a bomb expert, has an Interpol red corner notice against him, and is on the most wanted list of the NIA along with Kalsangra and Amit Hakla. Dange and Kalsangara carry a Rs 10 lakh reward, and Amit alias Ashwini Chauhan carries a Rs 5 lakh reward on his head. Suresh Nair has been described in the Lankesh case documents as being present at camps in Jalna, and in Ahmedabad's Gujarat in 2015. Apart from Nair, one of the other 'external trainers' at the camps for the Sanatan Santha-linked recruits accused in the Gauri Lankesh murder case has been identified as Pratap Hazra, who is linked to the right-wing Bhavani Sena outfit in West Bengal. He was arrested by the Maharashtra ATS in 2020 in connection with the Nalasapora terror case. A chargesheet filed in November 2018 by a Special Investigation Team of the Karnataka Police, which investigated the Gauri Lankesh murder, contains statements by three accused and four witnesses regarding the weapons training camps. SIT has arrested 17 people linked to various fringe right-wing groups in connection with the murder of Gauri Lankesh, which was allegedly coordinated by those formerly associated with Sanatan Sanstha, an affiliate of the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, which allegedly created a crime syndicate to target critics of Hindutva. In May this year, during the Gauri Lankesh case trial, one of the witnesses who had earlier informed a court that he attended training camps where outside experts also came, turned hostile and denied his earlier statements. The 37-year-old prosecution witness, who is involved in grassroots politics in Karnataka's Belagavi, was declared hostile by the state special public prosecutor after he denied all the statements he had made before a magistrate in September 2018. He denied recruiting and taking three people from Belagavi for a training camp in Maharashtra's Jalna around January 2015, where a Belagavi man, who is an accused in the August 30, 2015, murder of Prof M M Kalburgi in Dharwad, was also allegedly a participant. In 2018, the witness stated the presence of as many as four external trainers at some of the camps who were experts in the use of explosives and subversion tactics. The external trainers were only identified as 'Bade Mahatmaji', 'Chote Mahatmaji' or 'Bade Babaji', and 'Bhai Saab', and their real identities were not revealed, he stated. 'The members of this crime syndicate were continuously provided with various kinds of training in the making and usage of weapons and explosives at many places. Local members of the syndicate took up the responsibility of organising these training camps at the different locations,' the SIT stated in the chargesheet in the Gauri Lankesh murder case. Among those accused in the Gabri Lankesh murder and other murder and terror cases who attended the training camps with 'guest trainers' are allegedly Amit Degwekar, Virendra Tawade, Sharad Kalaskar, Shrikant Pangarkar, Vasudev Suryavanshi, Ganesh Miskin, Amit Baddi, Bharat Kurne, Sachin Andhure, and Praveen Chatur. The descriptions of the 'babajis' were provided in the course of the Lankesh case probe by three arrested men Shrikant Pangarkar, 40, a former Shiv Sena councillor from Maharashtra, Sharad Kalaskar, 26, the alleged shooter in the 2013 Narendra Dabholkar murder case, and Vasudev Suryavanshi, 29, a mechanic who allegedly stole motorcycles for the murders of four progressive thinkers between 2015 and 2017. Sharad Kalaskar, who attended training camps of the syndicate where 'guest trainers' were in attendance, was convicted last year in the murder of the Maharashtra rationalist Narendra Dabholkar in Pune. He provided details of the training camps he attended to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which investigated the Dabholkar murder case. One of the arrested men in the Bengaluru case has stated that he was told that the 'guest trainers' who were experts in making IEDs were members of the 'Aseemanand group' in a possible reference to former RSS worker Naba Kumar Sarkar alias Aseemanand, who was arrested in the blast cases of the 2006-2008 period and was acquitted in the Samjhauta Express, Mecca Masjid, and Ajmer cases. According to the case documents, the camps provided training to dozens of people recruited by a covert unit of the Sanatan Sanstha linked to the murders of the rationalist Dabholkar, leftist thinker Govind Pansare, Kannada scholar M M Kalburgi, and Gauri Lankesh. 'The members of this organisation targeted persons whom they identified as inimical to their beliefs and ideology. The members strictly followed the guidelines and principles mentioned in 'Kshatra Dharma Sadhana', a book published by Sanatan Sanstha,' the SIT said after it filed a 9,235-page chargesheet on November 23, 2018, in the Gauri Lankesh case. The missing Abhinav Bharat men who have been on the run since 2008 are believed to have been roped in to train Sanatan Sanstha-linked persons to make bombs when the ENT doctor and Sanatan Sanstha activist Virendra Tawade was running the covert group between 2011 and 2016. At some training camps — such as the one held in Belagavi in Karnataka in December 2014 — the training in making IEDs was provided by Amit Degwekar, a resident of the Sanatan Sanstha ashram in Goa, who has been arrested in the Gauri Lankesh case for providing logistical and financial support, the Lankesh case documents have indicated. Degwekar's roommate at the Sanatan Sanstha ashram, Malgonda Patil, was killed in the 2009 Goa blast while he was allegedly trying to plant a bomb to disrupt a Diwali celebration opposed by the Sanatan Sanstha.
Indian Express
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
‘I am free now': Sri Ram Sene chief Pramod Muthalik thanks Goa CM Pramod Sawant for lifting ban on his entry into state
In his first public appearance in Goa for more than a decade, Sri Ram Sene chief Pramod Muthalik thanked Chief Minister Pramod Sawant for 'revoking' the ban against him entering the state. 'For the last 10 years, there was a ban (on Muthalik entering Goa). Abhi mukt ho gya hun (I am free now). The ban has been lifted due to the graciousness of the Chief Minister. I want to thank him. I met him yesterday. I told him that it is because of his courtesy that I got the opportunity to visit,' Muthalik said in Goa on Sunday. He was speaking on the sidelines of the 'Sanatan Rashtra Shankhnad Mahotsav', organised by the Goa-based Sanatan Sanstha, to commemorate the 83rd birthday of the group's founder, Jayant Athavale, and the group's silver jubilee. CM Sawant had attended the opening ceremony of the three-day event on Saturday. On what prompted the state to impose the ban, Muthalik said, 'Yehi sarkar thi (It was the same government that imposed the ban). In their view, there may have been a wrong opinion about my personality, which is why the ban was enforced at the time.' The controversial chief of Sri Ram Sene shot into the limelight for 'moral policing', after he led a group of men who attacked men and women visiting a pub in Mangaluru in 2009, claiming they were 'violating traditional Indian values'. Subsequently, under the Congress-led government, the district administration in Goa in 2009 issued a notification banning the entry of Muthalik and his associates into the state. Muthalik's entry in Goa was again banned in August 2014, when BJP's Manohar Parrikar was the Chief Minister, after Muthalik had announced his decision to set up his outfit in Goa later that year to 'fight against drug, alcohol and pub culture' in the state. According to officials, the decision to ban his entry was based on police reports that had warned that the entry of members of Sri Ram Sene and its leader could lead to a law-and-order problem in Goa, and that his statements 'will affect peace, harmony and create fear in the minds of the public'. For over a decade, the ban had been extended every few months by the district magistrates of the two districts in Goa. However, the ban lapsed this year and was not extended. In March, Muthalik entered Goa and met former Goa RSS chief-turned-rebel Subhash Velingkar at his home in Panaji.
Hindustan Times
18-05-2025
- Hindustan Times
Goa land for yoga, cows, not pleasure, says chief minister Pramod Sawant
Pramod Sawant, Goa's chief minister, said on Saturday that the coastal state – which draws tourists from all across the world for its casinos, coasts and party culture – isn't the land of pleasure but the land of yoga, devotion and cows. Addressing an event in Goa on Saturday, the BJP politician said Goa is much more than a bhog bhoomi (the land of pleasure). He described it as a "yog bhoomi (land of devotion and yoga) and go-mata bhoomi (land of cows). "Earlier, whenever people used to come to Goa, they used to think that this is bhog bhoomi (land of pleasure). But, this is not bhog bhoomi, it is yog bhoomi (land of devotion and yoga) instead. This is go-mata here, there is the ashram of Sanatan Sanstha as well," he was quoted as saying by India Today. Pramod Sawant further said Goa's culture and ancient temples have become a major draw for tourists, who earlier visited the coastal state for 'sun, sand and sea'. He said the temples in Goa are not under government control and instead are managed by the local communities that have maintained age-old traditions. 'In the past, people visited Goa to witness sun, sand, and sea. That has changed now. Tourists are arriving here to experience our rich culture and grand temples,' he said at the 'Shankhnad Mahotsav' organised by Sanatan Sanstha at Ponda. Sawant said Goa has the cleanest and most beautiful temples, which have become an attraction for visitors. 'The government has no involvement in the management of the temples in the state,' he added. He praised the Sanstha, headquartered in Ramnathi village in North Goa, for 'making people spiritually conscious' and promoting Sanatan Dharma through various platforms. People have started coming to Goa for spiritual experiences, he added. With inputs from PTI
