The Mumbai police arrested a man from Bengaluru for allegedly threatening Maharashtra cabinet minister Aaditya Thackeray, an official said on Thursday.
The two -- Amit Raghavendra Baddi and Ganesh Miski -- both residents of Hubballi, were arrested on Sunday, special investigating officer M N Anucheth said.
So far, six people, including Hindu Janajagruti Samiti member and ENT surgeon Virendrasinh Tawde, Sachin Andure and Sharad Kalaskar, have been arrested by the CBI in connection with the killing of Dabholkar.
The Congress accused the BJP of spreading mischief through its "hate factory".
The unidentified body found with two bullet injuries at a village in Belagavi district was not of one of the two killers of writer M M Kalburgi, but a criminal who was killed by his two brothers and his friend, a senior police official said here on Sunday.
They claim Wagle has always been writing against them.
The sketches have reportedly been drawn based on the inputs from CCTV footage and description by eyewitnesses.
Facing heat over a long list of writers who have returned Sahitya Akademi awards or resigned from their posts in the literary body, Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday denied that it was being soft on the issue of "intolerance" and said the ideological inclinations of the writers should be looked into.
Locals of Ramnathi in North Goa district where the Sanatan Sanstha is headquartered, have demanded a ban on the right-wing outfit and urged the state government to ensure that its ashram is shifted out of their village failing which they would intensify their agitation against them and their 'sadhaks' (seekers).
'RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat was on the Hindu extremists' hit-list. In June 2008, this information was made public. Prior to that, you should hear Bhagwat's speeches and listen to his 'liberal' statements.' 'After he was informed that he was on their hit-list, he became a hardliner. He was not like that before.'
Rushikesh Devdikar alias Murali, 44, who was absconding was arrested on Thursday from his hideout at Katras in Dhanbad district of Jharkhand, the SIT said in a statement. According to the probe team, Devdikar was part of the conspiracy to kill Lankesh. He is accused number 18 in the case.
CBI lawyer B P Raju sought further custodial interrogation of the accused, saying he was not cooperating with the investigating agency.
Voicing displeasure over the Dadri lynching incident and a string of killings of rationalists, he also questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's continued silence on these.
Eminent Punjabi writer and Padma Shri winner Dalip Kaur Tiwana decided to return her award protesting "recurrent atrocities" on Muslims in the country, as another Kannada writer joined authors giving up their Sahitya Akademi Awards against "growing intolerance".
Terming the BJP-led Maharashtra government a "total failure", Congress accused Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis of giving clean chits to several tainted ministers.
It also said Guha had made similar statements in an article.
The train of writers returning government-conferred honours has now been joined by Vadodara-based author and poet Anil Joshi who announced that he will give up his Sahitya Akademi award over the recent killing of rationalist MM Kalburgi and a few others.
Goa unit of Aam Aadmi Party on Thursday alleged that the state government was providing financial support to the "extremist and dubious" organisation Sanatan Sanstha, by giving advertisements to its mouthpiece.
'Why she was killed? Because she believed in a certain ideology, she wrote and spoke on that'
'It is worrisome that religion, politics and strong regional biases have pervaded our police force.'
'The Sanatan Sanstha does not believe in violence. The concept of violence and threatening people doesn't fit into our ideology and principles.' 'There are some people who are opposed to Hindu religion. They think propagating the tenets of the Hindu religion is a sign of backwardness.' 'While the RSS and Sanatan Sanstha propagate Hindutvavad and cultural nationalism, we do have our differences, which in a democratic society is absolutely normal and required.'
'If the Sanatan Sanstha is a threat to peaceful co-existence and Goa's culture, then I must stand up against such threats.'
A group of academics and scholars on Friday expressed their outrage and anger against the "assault on academic and constitutional freedom", joining the recent protests by writers, artistes, filmmakers, historians and scientists over "rising intolerance".
The author was flooded with a barrage of hate messages following his tweet in support of writers who returned their Sahitya Akademi awards.
Meanwhile, the Sanatan Sanstha alleged that Tawde was being 'implicated' by the probe agency on the basis of false allegations levelled by a witness, who himself is facing criminal charges.
In August 2016, at a meeting of the syndicate, the main members identified Lankesh as a durjan "as told in the Kshatra Dharma Sadhana based on her speeches and writings
The police didn't confirm if the weapons used in murder of writer M.M. Kalburgi and Lankesh were similar.
An SIT officer probing the murder case said the investigation is in final stage and a chargesheet will be filed in two months.
Over 200 noted authors, including Salman Rushdie and Neel Mukherjee, have asked British Prime Minister David Cameron to raise the issue of "rising climate of fear" and "growing intolerance" in India during his talks with his counterpart Narendra Modi.
Amid bitterness in ties with ally Shiv Sena, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has fired a fresh salvo questioning the opposition to his decision to provide security to Pakistani singer Ghulam Ali when Sena Chief's family had hosted cricketer Javed Miandad from that country.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's carping ally said the police assertion about security threat to Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Maoists was just a 'conspiracy theory'.
'It isn't likely that he would have observed a 'strategic silence' on a sensitive and controversial issue, as is done today by the powers-that-be lest an observation lets the cat out of the bag about the ruling dispensation's mindset,' says Amulya Ganguli.
The writers, artistes, thinkers and academics had gathered for a "resistance" meet (Pratirodh) against what they described as "attack on reason, democracy and composite culture".
'You know, there's not much else happening other than the juicy murder story starring the TV mogul's trophy turned huntress wife,' says Mango Indian.
Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday launched a scathing attack on the government on the issue of intolerance telling it not to learn the "wrong lessons" from the Pakistan.
The probe agency told the court that Andure is one of the two assailants who shot at Dabholkar at Omkareshwar Bridge here on August 20, 2013.
'He wanted to fire, I held his hand tight so that he would not be able to shoot.'
'And if you think this is alarmist nonsense, you are helping it happen,' says Mitali Saran.
'Neither the Congress nor the BJP has the political will to take on the Sanatan Sanstha.'
Three eminent writers from Punjab announced that they were returning their Sahitya Akademi awards, while Kannada writer Aravind Malagatti resigned from the body's general council, joining the growing protest by litterateurs over "rising intolerance" and "communal" atmosphere.
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