Goa BJP leaders support us: Sanatan Sanstha October 28th, 2009 - 3:41 pm ICT by IANS Tell a Friend -
Bharatiya Janata Party Panaji, Oct 28 (IANS) Goa Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders like Manohar Parrikar have expressed support for the Sanatan Sanstha, the Hindu outfit blamed for the pre-Diwali blasts that killed two people said Wednesday. Virendra Marathe, managing trustee of the Sanstha, named BJP state president Shripad Naik, leader of opposition Parrikar and party legislator Dayanand Mandrekar as politicians who stood by them in the aftermath of the blasts in Margao, 35 km from here. Police say the blasts were engineered and executed by members of the Sanstha. “The BJP MLAs supported us. They advised us to sue the media for defamation, for slandering the Sansthan. Dayanand Mandrekar, Parrikar and Shripad Naik supported us,” Marathe said at a press conference in Panaji. Asked about Goa Transport Minister Sudhin Dhavalikar’s alleged links with the Sanstha, Marathe denied that the minister funded its activities in Goa. However, he said the minister’s wife Jyoti Dhavalikar handled the outfit’s accounts. “Jyoti, who is a Sanstha member, has a financial background. She used to work in the banking sector. Her experience is helping us,” he said. Marathe said the Sanstha had chosen Goa as a national headquarters because the region was sacred. “Even the temples here have a more pavitra (pure) ambience than the ones in Maharashtra - that’s because Goa is a punya bhoomi,” Marathe said. Two people, Malgunda Patil and his accomplice Yogesh Naik, both members of the Sanatan Sanstha, died when improvised explosive devices (IEDs) they were through a crowded area exploded in Margao Oct 16. Three other IEDs, two of which were found unexploded near the blast site and the other about 30 km away near Vasco, did not go off. Police have interrogated more than 100 members of the Sanstha and raided the ashram near Ponda, 30 km from here, three times since the blast. http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/politics/goa-bjp-leaders-support-us-sanatan-sanstha_100266708.html * * * State rejects police plan to ban Sanatan Sanstha Mateen Hafeez, TNN 27 October 2009, 12:35am IST | MUMBAI: The state government has sent back to the state police, a proposal seeking a ban on the right wing organisation, Sanatan Sanstha. The Home department has made some queries and told the state police to give a comprehensive explanation. This was the second proposal sent by the state police to the Home department, seeking a ban on the Sanstha, a Hindu revivalist group and sister organisation of the Hindu Janjagruti Samiti. On September 6, 2008, TOI was the first to report about a proposal being sent by the state anti-terrorism squad (ATS) to the government. The second proposal was sent in September this year. Last week, the state police received a list of queries from the state, which require clarification, before the state gives a green signal to the proposal and sends it to the Union government. S S Virk, director-general of police, said that they were examining the case. "The proposal was sent by the intelligence agencies to the state but the Home department has returned the proposal to us with some queries. We are trying to answer all of them and check the latest activities of Sanatan Sanstha, its members, to find out if they are still active (terror-related action),'' said Virk. On October 16, a motorcycle blast in Goa killed two Sanstha members, Malgunda Patila and Yogesh Naik, both residents of Maharashtra. "After the Maharashtra link cropped up in the Goa blast, we sent our team there to see if Sanstha members were involved in the blast. However, the evidence and our information does not corroborate their involvement,'' added Virk. The state police chief said the Sanstha members were working on the lines of Bajrang Dal but refused to comment on why Bajrang Dal has not been banned so far. According to him, there was not sufficient evidence against Bajrang Dal too. "Members are performing their activities `silently' and their involvement was also found in Miraj and Sangli,'' he added. A police team also conducted a thorough search of Patil and Naik's residences in Maharashtra but was tightlipped about the results. The ATS had last year arrested six persons including two Sanatan Sanstha sevaks-Ramesh Gadkari and Santosh Angre (20). They were accused of making and planting bombs at three places in Thane, Vashi and Panvel. A play, `Amhi Pachpute', was to be staged at a Thane theatre where the bomb exploded. The Sanstha had protested against the play, saying that it showed Hindu gods and goddesses in a "poor light''. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/State-rejects-police-plan-to-ban-Sanatan-Sanstha/articleshow/5166281.cms
