Maharashtra will submit evidence to support proposal for ban on Sanathan Sanstha, says minister
The proposal to ban the organisation was first submitted by the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party-led Maharashtra government in 2011.
The Maharashtra government on Tuesday said that it will submit new evidence to the Centre to support the proposal for a ban on Hindutva group Sanathan Sanstha, the Hindustan Times reported. Maharashtra minister of state for home Deepak Kesarkar said the Centre will take a decision on the ban, The Asian Age reported.
The proposal to ban the organisation was first submitted by the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party-led Maharashtra government in 2011, The Asian Age reported. The ruling Congress-led United Progressive Alliance Union government, however, did not take a decision on the matter.
“When the central government takes any decision, it takes views from all sides, studies the matter well,” said Kesarkar. “Only then can it take such a big decision.”
On August 9, the police arrested Hindutva activist Vaibhav Raut and two suspected accomplices after police found a large stash of crude bombs and weapons at his office. They were allegedly making bombs to spread panic at public gatherings, and are in the custody of the Anti-Terrorism Squad till August 28.
Kesarkar said the fresh evidence will be based on information that’s obtained from Raut’s interrogation.
Raut is the co-founder of the Hindu Govansh Raksha Samiti, a cow protection group in Nallasopara. When he set up the organisation at the end of 2014, he had allegedly sought the guidance of the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, an offshoot of the Sanatan Sanstha. On August 20, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad arrested a former Shiv Sena corporator as part of its investigation into the seizure of explosives.
Six Sanathan Sanstha members were investigated for their role in the 2009 Goa blast. Two of the accused were killed when their scooter exploded near a local Narakasur effigy burning parade on the eve of Diwali.