NGO spokesperson says the organisation is being targeted under pressure from hypocritical progressive elements, alleges activist Sameer Gaikwad arrested on baseless facts and inconclusive evidence
Mumbai : Sanatan Sanstha has openly come forward in defense of Sameer Gaikwad, accused in the murder of veteran CPI leader Govind Pansare, saying that he is not involved in the case. Abhay Vartak, spokesperson of Sanatan Sanstha, said that Gaikwad was innocent and that the government was harassing the Sanstha under pressure from “hypocritical progressive elements”.
The Hindu organization is under the scanner after its activist Sameer Gaikwad was arrested in connection with the murder.
“Sanatan Sanstha is being targeted under pressure from hypocritical progressive elements, but it is never going to bow down before such elements of the country,” Vartak said at a press conference, in the presence of Sanjiv Punalkar, national secretary of Hindu Vidhidnya Parishad (HVP).
He said that the Sanstha was doing a good job as they were creating awareness among the Hindus, and sought to know why there was a demand for a ban on the Sanstha. He alleged that the state government and the police were being pressurised by “so-called progressive elements”.
While Vartak avoided taking any names, he said: “These forces were maintaining a studied silence about Raza Academy and those responsible for the gathering of thousands of Muslims to attend the last rites of terrorist Yakub Memon.”
Punalekar said that whatever suggestions were being regarding the investigation made by the kin of Pansare and Narendra Dabholkar — a prominent anti-superstition activist who was shot dead in Pune in 2013 —should be taken into consideration. “However, the police and the state machinery must ensure that innocent individuals should not undergo needless stress with the investigation getting misled,” he added.
Punalekar said they met Gaikwad in Sangli and found that police have arrested him on “baseless facts and inconclusive evidences”. “We also sent many letters to the police regarding the murder case, which was not even considered,” he alleged.
“We are going to extend all our support to Gaikwad with our group of advocates and are confident that he would come out clean of all the charges,” he said.
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Communist leader and rationalist Govind Pansare, 82, and his wife, Uma were shot at by two motorcycle-borne youths on February 16, 2015, near their home in Kolhapur.
Pansare died four days later at the Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai while his wife survived the attack suffering injuries that crippled her.
Right-wing outfit Sanatan Sanstha, is in focus after its activist Sameer Gaikwad man was arrested in connection with the murder.
Gaikwad, an active member of ‘Sanatan Sansthan’ since 1998, was arrested after police went through his “innumerable” phone call records and leads obtained through electronic surveillance by the SIT, set up to track down Pansare’s killers.
He was produced in a court at Kolhapur in western Maharashtra which remanded him in police custody till September 23.
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