'Neither the Congress nor the BJP has the political will to take on the Sanatan Sanstha.'
'If the Sanatan Sanstha is a threat to peaceful co-existence and Goa's culture, then I must stand up against such threats.'
In their first-ever visit to Sanatan Sanstha after taking over the Margao blast case, National Investigating Agency (NIA) officials on Saturday questioned its managing trustee at its Ramnathi ashram, around 30 kms from Panaji.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is probing the source of funding of Sanatan Sanstha, a right-wing Hindu group whose members have been named accused in the 2009 Margao bomb blast.
Jayant Athavale, chief of Sanatan Sanstha, was quizzed oN Saturday by sleuths of the Central agency at his residence in Ramnathi Ashram, 30km from Panaji. "An NIA team quizzed Sanatan Sanstha's founder Dr Jayant Athavale in his residential quarters," Sanatan Prabhat, the outfit's mouthpiece claimed on Sunday.
Sanatan Sanstha's link to Margao blast conspiracy is getting thicker with all five accused arrested in the case having allegiance to the Hindu right wing organisation operating from Goa, police said.
Goa Chief Minister Digamber Kamat said on Sunday that he was yet to receive any proposal from state home ministry on ban on Sanatan Sanstha, a right wing Hindu organisation, under scanner for its alleged role in Margao blast.
Mahatma Gandhi's great-grandson Tushar Gandhi on Thursday opposed a ban on the Sanatan Sanstha, which is under scan for the murder of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar, saying banning any organisation is "undemocratic".
'Why she was killed? Because she believed in a certain ideology, she wrote and spoke on that'
"The other Hindu organisations have some or the other backing. They have not been taking the hard stance on certain issues like we do," he added.
The Goa government said on Monday that it is contemplating a ban on the Sanatan Sanstha for its alleged involvement in the Diwali-eve blast in Panaji even as the Hindu right-wing organisation denied of any role in the explosion that left one dead and another critically wounded.
A proposal to ban the Sanstha is pending with the Maharashtra government since last year, a top ATS officer said on Tuesday.
A worker of right-wing organistaion Sanatan Sanstha picked up from Goa by Pune police, as part of their probe into the murder of anti-superstition activist Narendra Dabholkar.
Another senior officer of Karnataka CID conducted some preliminary enquiries regarding the possible links the hardline outfit with murder of Kalburgi.
They claim Wagle has always been writing against them.
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Sanatan Sanstha, the Hindu right-wing group often at loggerheads with Narendra Dabholkar, on Wednesday sought to distance itself from the anti-superstition activist's killing.
A special court in Margao, Goa, has acquitted all six accused in the 2009 bomb blast case.
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).
Additional sessions judge A A Jadhav of the special court for cases under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act is likely to pronounce the judgement on Friday, said special public prosecutor Prakash Suryawanshi.
Dabholkar (67), an anti-superstition crusader, was shot dead while on a morning walk on Omkareshwar Bridge here on August 20, 2013.
The investigating agencies could not expose the masterminds behind the murder of rationalist Dr Narendra Dabholkar, and must introspect whether it was a mere failure or a 'deliberate inaction' due to the influence of any 'person in power', the trial court here said on Friday in its judgment.
'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.'
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has said Malgonda Patil, the prime accused in Margao blast, stayed in the saint's quarter 'Sant Kakshay' at Sanatan Sanstha's Ramnathi Ashram in Goa.
"We strongly condemn the allegation levelled by Shyam Manav... Hypnotism does not possess the power to make a person do violent act," said the spokesperson of the Sanstha, Abhay Vartak, at a press conference in Mumbai.
Journalist Nikhil Wagle, who has been receiving threats from the Sanatan Sanstha, has rejected the security cover offered to him by the Maharashtra government.
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.
Right-wing organisations are holding a five-day conference at Ramnathi, Goa -- headquarters of the Sanatan Sanstha -- from June 10 to June 14 to draw up a timetable for the "formation of a Hindu nation and protection of Hindutva and Hindu organisations". Sanatan Sanstha had hit headlines in October 2009 for its links with Malegaon blast accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, after the death of two people in a scooter bomb blast at Margao on the eve of Diwali.
However, a lawyer representing Dabholkar's daughter claimed before the court that the CBI has not investigated the case properly and there are many loopholes that are yet to be probed.
Dabholkar was shot dead on August 20, 2013 near his home in Pune, while he was on a morning walk.
A former self-defence trainer with right-wing Hindu group Sanatan Sanstha was arrested in connection with Margao bomb blast conspiracy by Special Investigation Team (SIT), police said on Wednesday.
The Goa police on Wednesday claimed that there was enough proof against the two Sanatan Sanstha activists, who died in the Margao blast, to indicate their involvement in the explosion. Margao police station in-charge has filed a First Information Report against Malgonda Patil and Yogesh Naik, because there was enough proof against them linking them to the blast, Superintendent of Police Atmaram Deshpande told reporters.
The Mumbai police arrested a man from Bengaluru for allegedly threatening Maharashtra cabinet minister Aaditya Thackeray, an official said on Thursday.
'The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Goa Police made every attempt to gather evidence against Sanatan Sanstha in the blast case, but they achieved nothing,' the organisation said in its mouthpiece Sanatan Prabhat. It said the case is transferred to NIA to make sure that Sanatan is indicted in the offence 'by hook or by crook.'
The Goa police on Wednesday claimed that right-wing Hindu group Sanatana Sanstha was not responsible for the October 16 scooter blast in Margao.The state police had earlier said that the two key accused in the case -- Malganda Patil and Yogesh Naik -- had links with the Sanstha.Earlier, state Home Minister Ravi Naik stated that Sanathan Sanstha worker Malganda Patil planned and executed Friday's blast near a church in Margao.
Even after four days, the state police have failed to make any arrest in the Margao blast case as the Special Investigation Team continued their investigation in the state.
Akolkar is believed to be linked to 'Sanatan Sanstha', a Hindu right-wing organization whose headquarters are located in Ponda, Goa. He has been on the run ever since his name cropped up during the NIA investigations in the Goa blast case.
The Maharashtra government dillydallied for over seven years to pass the anti-superstition and black magic bill, and it took the murder of rationalist Dr Narendra Dabholkar, who tirelessly pushed for the bill, to goad it into passing it through the ordinance route at its cabinet meeting on Wednesday as a tribute to him
Conflicting views are emerging over the proposal to ban Sanatan Sanstha, a right wing group allegedly linked to the killing of Govind Pansare.
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.
Close on the heels of the arrest of a man allegedly having links with right-wing outfit Sanatan Sansthan in connection with the murder of Communist leader and rationalist Govind Pansare, a 32-year-old woman has been picked up by police for questioning from Kanjurmarg in Mumbai suburb.
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