Sunburn Festival in Pune and Padmavat Show at Belgaum Theatre Were on Attack List of Nalasopara Accused Sharad Kalaskar, Says ATS to Court
The ATS said that the right-wing extremists were planning a blast at the Sunburn festival which was held in Pune in the 2017.
Mumbai, August 28: The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of Maharashtra on Tuesday, in a shocking detail said that information obtained from Sharad Kalaskar's computer has revealed that the right-wing extremists were planning a blast at the Sunburn festival which was held in Pune in the 2017. The ATS lawyer told the Sessions Court that information decoded from Sharad Kalaskar's computer brought the fact to light.
The ATS also told court that a show of movie Padmavat in a Belgaum Cinema House was also on the list of places to be attacked. Sharad Kalaskar (25), Vaibhav Raut (40) and Sudhanwa Gondhalekar (39) were arrested following raids that began in the Palghar district this month and spanned to Pune, the police said.
Earlier, three persons, including one affiliated to a right-wing outfit, were arrested on August 10, with the Maharashtra police saying that it had recovered a large quantity of explosives that were to be used for carrying out blasts at various places in the state.
The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of Maharashtra, which carried out the arrests on the basis of a specific information, said it was investigating whether those arrested had any connections with the killings of journalist Gauri Lankesh and rationalists Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare.
A court in Mumbai remanded all three in ATS' custody till August 18 this evening. ATS chief Atulchandra Kulkarni said the accused had stored a huge cache of explosive materials, and they would be questioned about all cases where involvement of right-wing extremists is suspected.
"We will question them regarding all detected and undetected cases, including Dabholkar, Pansare and Gauri Lankesh (murder) cases," he said.
The ATS said it zeroed in on the accused after it received a tip off that some persons were planning to carry out "acts of conspiracy" at many places across the state. "We also received information that these persons had stored vast quantities of arms and ammunition in places such as Satara, Nallasopara and Pune. We were able to get their phone numbers and thus, ascertained their identities," the Additional Public Prosecutor Sunil Gonsalves told the sessions court here while seeking the accused's custody.
The police officer, on the day of the arrest also said that Raut allegedly ran 'Hindu Govansh Raksha Samiti', a little-known pro-cow protection outfit, in Nallasopara. While his purported social media account mentioned that he was associated with the right-wing Sanatan Sanstha, the outfit today denied that Raut was its member. (With Agency Inputs)
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 28, 2018 06:59 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).