Denying any involvement in the Margao blast, Hindu right-wing organisation Sanatan Sanstha on Monday alleged that Goa Home Minister Ravi Naik is falsely implicating the outfit, to hide his failure in probing the matter. "Naik's remarks that, police are probing our foreign links, is ridiculous. It is indeed a big defeat of the Goa government that they are still unable to find the real culprits. Naik is making these allegations just to hide his failure," a spokesperson said.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had last week announced the scheme, and said many priests were reeling under financial crisis and her government was doling out sops to support them. "The Cabinet has given its nod to the 'Rajya Purohit Kalyan Prokolpo' which the chief minister had announced a few days ago," state home secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay said at the secretariat.
CBI lawyer B P Raju sought further custodial interrogation of the accused, saying he was not cooperating with the investigating agency.
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.
Those who know Alapan Bandyopadhyay describe him as measured, tactical and extremely focused on achieving what he sets out to do. To many it came as a surprise that he would cut short a meeting with the prime minister.
Amidst opposition in some quarters to observing International Yoga Day, Vishwa Hindu Parishad International Executive President Dr Praveen Togadia on Sunday said that the discipline was never secular and was more of "Vedic and sanatan".
Vaibhav Raut, a member of 'Hindu Govansh Raksha Samiti', was apprehended from Bhandar Aali in Nallasopara west on Thursday night.
Dabholkar was shot dead in August, 2013 while Lankesh was shot dead in September, 2017.
Trinamool Congress candidate Prasun Banerjee on Wednesday won the Howrah Lok Sabha seat in a by-election defeating his nearest rival, Communist Party of India-Marxist candidate Sridip Bhattacherjee, by over 27,000 votes.
The Howrah Lok Sabha by-election to be held in the shadow of Saradha chitfund scam will be a test case for the Mamata Banerjee government's popularity and for the Congress and the Communist Party of India-Marxist to gauge their standing in West Bengal prior to the 2014 general election.
'The arrests of Sanatan Sanstha members for committing murder and stockpiling explosives with the alleged intent of committing mass murder must be embarrassing to a majoritarian government,' notes Devangshu Datta.
Have we been allowed to forget Partition? Isn't Partition the reason many Hindus cannot bring themselves to trust Muslims? So many Muslims born after 1947 have told me with anguish: "How long will we be blamed for Partition?" notes Jyoti Punwani.
With Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's pitch for a 'secular' face as the National Democratic Alliance's prime ministerial candidate evoking strong reaction from Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh on Tuesday posed five questions to the Sangh asking it to define Hindutva.
The court ordered Gaikwad's release on a personal bond of Rs 25,000.
Tripathi, with tattoos on her hands, is one of the most influential figures in the LGBT community in India.
Two persons were picked up on Monday from Belthangady in Mangalore in connection with the Malegaon blast case. It has been learnt that the two belong to the Sanatan Sanstha organisation. Investigators are also exploring a possible link between the Malegaon blast and the blast in Goa around Diwali 2009.
In response to the Maharashtra government seeking a ban on Hindu right-wing organisation Sanatan Sansthan, the Union government has sought for more information before it could decide its fate.
A bench of justices R S Endlaw and Asha Menon issued notice to the Centre and the Delhi government seeking their stand on the plea by two women seeking to get married under the SMA.
'We have been appealing to various governments for so many years that there should be no dams in the Himalayas, but no one listens.' 'Nature responded in its own way.'
Gaikwad's bail application came up before Justice C V Bhadang who adjourned the matter to July 11 with the mutual consent of the accused and the prosecution.
Anybody living in India is a Hindu, Bhagwat said.
Sanatan Sanstha member Prashant Juvekar, arrested for his alleged role in the 2009 Goa blast, was included in the group tasked with engineering the explosion due to his 'aggressiveness' in propagating the outfit's ideology, Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad officials said on Tuesday.
'The BJP will be the ruling party.'
Days after the controversial arrest of comedian Kiku Sharda for imitating Gurmeet Ram Rahim on a television show, the All India Hindu Federation has filed a complaint against the self-proclaimed godman for dressing up as Lord Vishnu in a video.
Tell us what you think of the Dharma Dansad's resolution, by posting your views below.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat on Monday came under attack from political parties for his controversial remarks that India is a Hindu nation and Hindutva is its identity.
Leaders hope the Ayodhya temple ceremony would pave way for harmony.
A sprawling Shee Sanatan Hindu Mandir, the new Hindu temple at Wembley, finally opened on Monday following 14 years of construction. The temple is believed to have cost more than 16 million UK pounds or Rs 109 crore.
The Goa police on Monday made the first arrest in the Margao blasts, in which two persons were killed, when a man with alleged links to a Hindu right-wing group 'Sanatan Sanstha' was detained and searches were carried out at the outfit's office.The two victims, who were killed in the blast, were activists of the Sanstha. The police had earlier detained five members of the that which has recently come under the scanner of security agencies.
The Central Bureau of Investigation, which is investigating the 2007 Mecca Masjid blasts that claimed 15 lives, may be close to cracking the case.
Four Communist Party of India-Marxist supporters and a party worker were shot dead by Maoists on Friday after they suspected them to be police informers and their bodies dumped on the highway at West Midnapore and Purulia districts, the police said.
The Goa home ministry has said that Malgonda Patil, prime accused in the Margao blast, was also a managing trustee of two more Hindu organisations besides his association with the right wing outfit Sanatan Sanstha.
Goa Home Minister Ravi Naik on Monday admitted that the Margao blast, in which two members of a right-wing Hindu group were killed on October 16, indicated an intelligence failure. "Sanatan Saunstha was under the police scanner after the Thane and Panvel blasts in Maharashtra, but despite this they (intelligence agencies) had no inkling of what is being conspired by its members," he said. Two Saunstha members -- Malgonda Patil and Yogesh Naik -- died in the blast.
Main accused in the Margao blast Malgonda Patil had revealed to the police names of those involved in the explosion before his death, said Goa Home Minister Ravi Naik. "Patil made certain statements to the police before his death naming people who were involved (in the blast), while he was being shifted from a hospital in Margao to Panaji," Naik told reporters.
A Special Investigating Team was formed by the Goa government on Sunday to probe the Margao blast in which two members of a Hindu right-wing organisation, allegedly involved in the explosion, were killed.
Arrested in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, she was given a clean chit by the National Investigation Agency, but the trial court refused to discharge her from the case.
Sanatan Sanstha -- the right-wing organisation under probe -- strongly denies being involved in the Margao blast. Instead it accuses the state government of falsely implicating the organisation.
Police were probing the links of right-wing group Sanatan Saunstha with the blast that took place at 9.30 pm on Friday night when explosives kept in a scooter went off on a busy street in Margao, 30 km from Panaji.
The Congress is searching high and low for a suitable candidate to take on Narendra Modi in the holy city. Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com
Sanatan Sanstha spokeperson Abhay Vartak told rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa about the demand for the ban, Hindu terrorism and also the activities of the organisation in the wake of the Maharashtra government alleging that they were into terror activities.