3 members of right-wing outfit held, bombs seized

MUMBAI: The Anti-terrorism Squad (ATS) of Maharashtra police on Friday said it had arrested three members of a suspected right-wing Hindutva outfit and seized a huge quantity of explosives, including crude bombs.

Vaibhav Raut (40) and Sharad Kalaskar (25) were arrested last night from Nallasopara in Palghar district and their interrogation led to the arrest of Sudhanva Gondhalekar (39) in Pune. A court here today remanded all three to ATS custody till August 18.

Giving details of the arrest, ATS chief Atulchandra Kulkarni said the accused had stored a huge cache of explosive materials, adding that they would be questioned about all the cases in which the involvement of right-wing extremists was suspected. “We will question them regarding all the detected and undetected cases, including the (rationalists) Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare and (journalist) Gauri Lankesh (murder) cases,” he said.

The ATS zeroed in on the accused on the basis of information that some persons were planning to carry out acts of sabotage at many places in the state, Kulkarni said.

Raut allegedly ran the “Hindu Govansh Raksha Samiti”, a little-known procow protection outfit, in Nallasopara, a police officer had said earlier.

While Raut’s purported account on a social media platform mentioned that he was associated with right-wing group Sanatan Sanstha, the outfit today denied that he was its member. The raid at Raut’s house at Bhandar Aali in Nallasopara West and at a nearby shop owned by him led to the seizure of 20 crude bombs, two gelatin sticks, four electronic and 22 non-electronic detonators, 150 gm of explosive powder, two bottles labelled as “poison”, batteries, soldering equipment and a bomb circuit drawing, according to the ATS.