A witness in the murder of Communist leader Govind Pansare said sadhaks of Hindu Janjagrati Samiti (HJS) run by Sanatan Sanstha had committed the crime.
Mukund Dinkar Kadam, 46, a businessman, told the Special Investigation Team (SIT) that he knew Dr. Virendra Tawde for many years and he was associated with the HJS since 1995. He said Kolhapur president of HJS Madhukar Najare told his colleagues about the programme “Who Killed Karkare” being organised by Pansare and that there was heavy security for it. Mr. Kadam also said at the programme Pansare declared that he will be holding 150 such programmes all over Maharashtra.
In his statement, which is part of the charge sheet filed by SIT against Dr. Tawde, Mr. Kadam has said one-and-a-half months after this declaration, Pansare was shot dead. Sanatan Sanstha was strongly opposed to Pansare due to his progressive thinking, so “sadhaks of HJS run by Sanatan have committed the said crime”.
The 164-page witness statement recorded by a judicial or metropolitan magistrate, Mr. Kadam reveals he used to work with Sanjay Sadvilkar referred to as Dada who introduced him to Dr. Virendra Tawde. He knew of Dr. Tawde as the chief activist of HJS and Sanatan at Kolhapur. He said at the behest of Dr. Tawde, Dada was making several calls and trying to arrange for cartridges referred to as chocolate.
The chargesheet reproduces many emails exchanged between Sarang Akolkar, another accused in the case and Dr. Tawde. Akolkar’s emails were sent by prajusar@gmail.com to hjsvirentawde@gmail.com. All of Tawde’s email end with: Lets Understand Dharma in its True Sense. Do Kshyatra-Dharma. Go for Dharma-Sansthapana. Visit: www.hindujagrati.org.
The SIT recovered a Sandisk pen drive, cuzerblade 8 GB red and black coloured pen drives from Dr. Tawde’s residence. The team also has call detail records of Dr. Tawde, Sarang Akolkar and Vinay Pawar, the others accused in the case. There are images of Hindu god and goddess with trishuls in the chargesheet. Some of them have the Bhagwad Gita slok, Yada yada hi dharmasya glanirbhavati bharata, Abhythanamadharmasya tadatmanam srijamyaham written in Hindi. It means Whenever there is decay of righteousness, O Bharata, And there is exaltation of unrighteousness, then I Myself come forth ;
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On October 26, Center told the Bombay High Court it “did not find any material” to pronounce right wing extremist group Sanatan Sanstha a ‘terror organisation’ under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). In an affidavit filed in 2012, the Maharashtra government had referred to a letter written by the Additional Chief Secretary (Home) to the Union Home Ministry wherein the state had said that “Sanstha is liable to be banned under UAPA as three cases of bomb blasts had been registered against it.
