By Prarthana Mitra
The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad on Friday announced that they had managed to apprehend three men planning lethal terror attacks across multiple major cities before Independence Day.
The state police recovered an alarming reserve of explosives including twenty crude bombs, two gelatin sheets, one six-volt battery, a few loose wires, transistors and glue from the arrested, along with a note on how to prepare bombs. According to sources, the material confiscated from Nallasopara was ready-to-use. Their timely action may have averted a massive loss of lives and property in Mumbai, Pune, Solapur and Satara.
The accused and their affiliations
The three men who were arrested under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and sections of the Indian Penal Code and Explosives Act, reportedly have links to hardline right-wing Hindu outfits.
One of the accused, Vaibhav Raut (40), is an alleged member of the Hindu Govansh Raksha Samiti and a sympathiser of the right wing Sanatan Sanstha. This latter organisation has also been accused of playing a central role in the recent murders of dissenters, rationalists and activists including Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare, MM Kalburgi and journalist Gauri Lankesh.
Sharad Kasalkar who was arrested from Raut’s residence in Nallasopara is 25 years old. Both Kasalkar and Raut were supposedly trained by 39-year-old Sudhanwa Gondhalekar on how to assemble a bomb. Hailing from Satara, Gondhalekar is a member of the Shri Shivapratishthan Hindustan, the chief of which was booked for inciting unrest and violence in Pune earlier this year.
According to neighbours, Raut was an active gau rakshak who carried out frequent raids against beef traders for allegedly ferrying banned meat in the locality. Furthermore, the police were already monitoring Raut’s movements and whereabouts ever since he came out as a “self-proclaimed cow vigilante.” He was “under our watch,” said Superintendent of Police, Palghar Manjunath Singe. “Prohibitory orders were issued against him, Singe told The Indian Express.
Reaction and investigation
The Sanatan Sanstha has denied the affiliation of the three accused to their religious outfit, although a press release acknowledges and praised their volunteer work for other Hindu organisations. It also voices sympathy for Raut, crying foul play by the ATS and even promising legal aid from the Sanstha’s in-house advocate.
If the ATS officers can place RDX in the houses of devout Hindus, as has been seen in the Malegaon bomb blast case, whats to say that the same has not been repeated in the case of Vaibhav Raut? There has been absolutely no evidence yet. Therefore, accusing Raut of being guilty would be hazardous, the release said.
Regarding the alarming rate of violence perpetrated by extremist organisations, the ATS is trying to ascertain possible links between this plot and earlier targeted murders of rationalists and journalists. Acknowledging the difference in modus operandi and motive, the police, however,are in agreement that two separate modules within the Sanatan Sanstha may be responsible for these crimes.
“They were up to something sinister and the bombs were active and ready to be used. Such a huge cache recovered before Independence day and Bakrid is reason enough to worry. Our probe is now focusing on the purpose behind assembling so many bombs, were they planning a coordinated attack or otherwise, who trained them and related questions, said an official working closely with the investigation.
Prarthana Mitra is a staff writer at Qrius