India: Hindutva extremists planned the assassination of Gauri Lankesh a year before

India Today

Gauri Lankesh's murder was planned a year before: Exclusive details

• Nagarjun Dwarakanath
• Bengaluru
• August 29, 2018

HIGHLIGHTS

• Mastermind of Lankesh's assassination Amol Kale was former Hindu Janajagruti Samiti convener
• Amol Kale hired alleged killer Parashuram Waghmare who's member of Sri Ram Sene
• Weapon used to murder Lankesh's was procured, manufactured by Sharad Kalaskar

Gauri Lankesh was killed on September 5, 2017

The idea of creating a 'Hindu Rashtra' led to four activists being murdered by one nameless underground organisation. The organisation has members from Sanathan Sanstha, Hindu Janjagruthi Samithi and many other right wing organisations, according to the Special Investigation Team (SIT).
The mastermind of Gauri Lankesh's assassination Amol Kale was a former Hindu Janajagruti Samiti convener and another accused Amit Degwekar was a sadhak in the Sanathan Sanstha.
The nameless underground organisation had a hit list with 26 names across the country and it consisted of 60 people who were planning to execute the assassinations. The SIT shared as many as 14 names on the hit list with Maharashtra Police and Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS).
The recent arrests of many right-wing members in Mumbai, Maharashtra were based on the information provided by Karnataka SIT. According to the information the detonators and weapons were in possession of members of many right-wing organisations.
UNEARTHING GAURI LANKESH'S MURDER PLOT
The SIT has found that the plan to kill Gauri Lankesh started almost a year before the actual murder took place on September 5, 2017. Amol Kale hired the alleged killer Parashuram Waghmare - a member of Sri Ram Sene.
Waghmare was told to kill Lankesh for the sake of saving Hindu dharam. Kale then took Waghmare to an isolated three-acre land in Khanapur, Belgaum to practice shooting using an air pistol.
Waghmare first came to Bengaluru in July 2017 and did a recce of Gauri's house.
DAY OF THE MURDER
According to the police, Waghmare didn't know any of his associates by name. He only knew them through their aliases. Waghmare was told that someone will pick him up on a bike and he has to pull the trigger of the 7.65 mm country-made pistol.
On September 5 at 8.09 pm, Waghmare arrived on a black motorcycle outside Lankesh's house and assassinated her.
He was accompanied by another man Ganesh Miskin. Ganesh was also carrying a gun, if in case Waghmare failed to hit the target.
Once Gauri Lankesh was shot, Ganesh Miskin and Waghmare rushed towards Mysore Road and met another accused Amit Baddi, who was waiting in a Maruti Omni van. Waghmare and Ganesh Miskin, upon reaching the spot at Mysore Road, handed over the gun, bike, clothes, helmet, and shoes to Amit Baddi.
Both the shooters then headed towards Nelanmangala, which is on the outskirts of Bengaluru, to meet another associate Bharat Kurne.
Kurne helped them to board a bus to North Karnataka.
Meanwhile, Amit Baddi took the gun, clothes and the bike to a safe house in Kumbalgodu. The belongings along with the murder weapon were removed from the safe house by Sudhanva Gondhalekar 10 days later. Gondhalekar was recently arrested in Maharashtra.
ROLE OF EACH ACCUSED
Investigating officers feel that the murder was meticulously planned and micro-managed by mastermind Amol Kale. The SIT has arrested 12 people till now in Gauri Lankesh's murder case.
1. KT Naveen Kumar - Abettor of the conspiracy; was involved in procuring arms for next assassination
2. Sujith Kumar - Recruiter of the murderer (Parashuram Waghmare)
3. Amol Kale - Mastermind of the assassination
4. Amit Degwekar - Deputy head of the group
5. Manohar Edave - Involved in conspiring the murder
6. Parashuram Waghmare - The alleged shooter
7. Rajesh Bangera - Arms trainer
8. Ganesh Maskin - Bike rider
9. Amit Baddi - Collected weapon and took it to safe place
10. Suresh - House owner where weapon was hidden
11. Bharat Kurne - Owner of land where Waghmare practised shooting in 2017
12. Mohan Naik - Rented a house for weapon to be kept after the murder
FOUR MURDERS ONE DIARY
When Amol Kale was arrested a few months ago, the SIT found a diary in his possesson which had some codes. They cracked the codes and managed to get names and numbers of the other accused in the murder.
When the investigators dug deep into the information in the diary, they realised Amol Kale was also involved in murders of Govind Pansare, Narendra Dabholkar and MM Kalburgi.
Till Kalburgi's murder, Dr Virendra Tawde was heading the nameless organisation, but after his arrest, Amol Kale took over as the head of the group. The information in the diary was shared by the SIT with their counterparts in Maharashtra and many right-wing members were put under surveillance, which resulted in the recent arrests.
WEAPON USED FOR MURDER
Sources in SIT said that the weapon used for Gauri Lankesh's murder and other murders was procured and manufactured by Sharad Kalaskar, who was also arrested by the ATS.
SIT believes that the two guns were used for all four murders.

On the day of the murder, the gang carried two guns. In Pansare's killing both guns were used. In Gauri, Kalburgi, Dhabolkar killing, one gun was used, but the second gun was present at the crime scene.

- Said a source from SIT

According to SIT, the weapons seized by ATS in Mumbai consist of these two guns. SIT will now seek the custody of the weapon and send it to forensic laboratory for tests.
HABITUAL OFFENDERS
Amol Kale and gang allegedly threw petrol bombs at a theater in Belgaum during the screening of controversial movie Padmaavat. The SIT also unearthed another plot where the same gang had gone to a western music concert in Pune on 2017's New Year's Eve.
The mission was aborted as the gang found CCTV cameras and became alert, and the plan was shelved.

India: Sanatan Sanstha Trick - Takes Distance from Accused in Gauri Lankesh, Dabholkar murders saying They Were not Members

The Wire

Sanatan Sanstha Washes Its Hands of Accused in Gauri Lankesh, Dabholkar murders

At a press conference, the national spokesperson claimed that the organisation is being targeted. He also said that those arrested may have attended meetings, but were never members of the Sanstha.

National spokesperson of Sanathan Sanstha Chetan Rajhans (centre) and Sunil Ghanvat (right) of the Hindu Janjagruti Samiti at a press conference in Mumbai on August 27. Credit: Wire Staff

The Wire Staff

Mumbai: Controversial organisation Sanatan Sanstha has denied that any of the persons arrested in connection with the murders of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar and journalist Gauri Lankesh have anything to do with them.

“None of them have ever been a part of our organisation. They must have attended our meetings and must have been staunch supporters of Hindutva, but that does not mean they have been a part of Sanathan Sanstha,” said Chetan Rajhans, the national spokesperson of the organisation at a press conference in Mumbai on Monday.

The arrests were made by the Maharashtra and Karnataka Anti- Terrorism Squad (ATS) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Rajhans and Sunil Ghanwat of the Hindu Janjagruti Samiti (HJS), an off- shoot of Sanathan Santha, claimed that the police have not directly implicated any of its ‘sadhaks (followers)’ in any case. “It’s a witch hunt that began soon after Panvel and Thane bomb blast incidents in 2008. But the police has not named us in a single FIR or chargesheet. There have been demands made to ban our organisation. But these demands are baseless and made with malicious intentions,” Ghanwat announced. 

Sanathan Sanstha, an organisation floated 19 years ago, has been actively propagating the formation of  a “Hindu Rashtra”. The organisation, with its headquarters in Ponda, Goa, has spread its reach across Maharashtra, Karnataka and Goa. The Sanstha was established by Jayant Athavale, a hypnotherapist, to promote Hinduism. HJS, which operates on an identical ideology, was formed a little later in 2002. The Sanstha claims as many as 320 Hindu outfits are connected with it, which have all been collectively working for the “Hindu cause”.

The Sanstha and HJS were first named for their role in the Thane blast case of 2008 and since then they have been accused of playing a direct role in Madgaon blast, murders of Dabholkar, Lankesh, and CPI leader Govind Pansare and scholar, teacher and rationalist M.M. Kalburgi. These investigations have been carried out by different state and central agencies and common names have emerged, all pointing towards Sanathan Sanstha, according to investigators.

Narendra Dabholkar, Gauri Lankesh and Govind Pansare. Credit: PTI/Twitter/PTI

The demands to ban the organisation were first made in 2013 by the Maharashtra government. The demand has been revived once again and the state ATS has started to put together a fresh dossier on the organisation.

Rajhans called the proposal to ban the organisation unfair and said that such demands are politically motivated. He blamed the “Left-leaning intellectuals and the Congress for instigating the police establishment” against the organisation. “Left intellectuals have been furthering their political dreams by pushing for banning of Hindu outfits in the State. We are being targeted,” Rajhans claimed.

The arrests

On August 10, the ATS arrested three members of this module – Vaibhav Raut, 40, an alleged member of the Hindu Govansh Raksha Samiti and an alleged sympathiser of the Sanstha; 39-year old Sudhanva Gondhalekar from Satara and a member of the Shri Shivpratishthan Hindustan – an organisation run by Hindutva leader Manohar alias Sambhaji Bhide; and 25- year old Sharad Kalaskar, a follower of HJS.

The ATS also went on to arrest former Shiv Sena corporator Shrikant Pangarkar and another alleged member of Shri Shivpratishthan Hindustan, Avinash Pawar. Kalaskar’s interrogation led the ATS sleuths to Sachin Andure, a resident of Aurangabad in Maharashtra and the ATS claims the two were involved in Dabholkar’s shoot out. Andure is allegedly a member of the HJS.

Sambhaji Bhide. Credit: PTI

The ATS claims to have seized a vast quantity of explosives from Raut’s residence in Nallasopara outside Mumbai on August 10. While Raut has not been directly named in the murder case so far, he was a regular face at the conference organised by the Sanstha and is believed to have provided logistic support to the organisation. He, the ATS claims, was a part of the larger terror network that the HJS and the Sanstha has allegedly been a part of.

The CBI, which is investigating Dabholkar’s murder, on Sunday told the special CBI court in Pune that the arms used in Dabholkar and Lankesh’s murder were the same. This was the first time that the central agency said there was a direct link in the two murders.  This claim was made at the time of seeking Andhure’s custody.

The Karnataka ATS also claims that Gondhalekar has been long associated with HJS and his role have been probed in Lankesh’s murder case and that that Pangarkar too is associated with HJS.

The Sanstha spokespersons have maintained that the organisation is only involved in “religious activities” and has no role to play in any murder or terror activities. Towards the end of the press conference, as the reporters began to bombard Rajhans and Ghanvat with facts and the inflammatory content published in the organisation’s mouthpiece Sanathan Prabhat, the two dodged most questions.

India: The Maze - intricate web of radical Hindu terrorist groups

The Maze

Six recent arrests by the Maharashtra Police and the CBI point to a complex and intricate web of fringe Hindu radical groups whose members are now being linked to four murders and a recently busted terror module. The Indian Express untangle the plot

Written by Rashmi Rajput , Johnson T A | Updated: August 26, 2018 

Four murders, a terror plot, two state police forces, multiple crack teams, numerous suspects and a diary that connects them all.
This diary, recovered from the Pune residence of Amol Kale, a former Hindu Janajagruti Samiti convenor and an accused in the September 2017 murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh, contained coded entries and numbers, which, investigators claim, has brought them close to cracking the 2013 murder of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar. In the process, sleuths claim to have unearthed a terror module whose members, affiliated to fringe Hindu radical groups, were allegedly planning to carry out bomb blasts across Maharashtra.
Also read | Five held now for ‘terror plot’, ATS prepares fresh dossier for Sanatan Sanstha ban

On August 10, the Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) announced the arrests of three members of this module — Vaibhav Raut, 40, an alleged member of the Hindu Govansh Raksha Samiti and an alleged sympathiser of the Goa-headquartered Sanatan Sanstha; Sudhanva Gondhalekar, 39, who hails from Satara and is a member of the Shri Shivpratishthan Hindustan; and Sharad Kalaskar, 25, a follower of Hindu Janjagruti Samiti (HJS). The ATS also went on to arrest former Shiv Sena corporator Shrikant Pangarkar and another alleged member of Shri Shivpratishthan Hindustan Avinash Pawar.
During interrogation, Kalaskar is said to have confessed that he and Sachin Prakashrao Andure shot Dabholkar. Following this, the CBI, which is investigating the case, arrested Andure, a member of the HJS.
“Since June, Karnataka’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing Lankesh’s murder shared certain numbers mentioned in Kale’s diary and these were put on surveillance by the Maharashtra ATS. It was while intercepting calls exchanged between these numbers that investigators learnt of the conspiracy to carry out blasts. On August 7, ATS officers closed in on the suspects. Accordingly, raids were conducted in Nala Sopara and Vaibhav Raut and Kalaskar were detained for questioning,” said a senior Home Department official.
Also read | Gauri Lankesh murder case: Maharashtra accused ‘pops up’ in footage
Click to enlarge. The web
Over the last year, while probing Lankesh’s murder, the Karnataka SIT found that the journalist was shot with guns used in the murders of Dabholkar in Pune on August 20, 2013, Leftist thinker Govind Pansare in Kolhapur on February 16, 2015, and Kannada scholar M M Kalburgi in Dharwad on August 30, 2015.
The investigations in the Lankesh case have also led police to the door steps of people, who on the face of it, seem to belong to fringe groups such as the Shri Shivpratishthan Hindustan but are deeply associated with overground and underground activities of the Sanatan Sanstha and its affiliate, the HJS.
The Sanstha was established in 1999 by Jayant Athavale, a hypnotherapist, to promote Hindu religion. The aim of the trust is “to impart spiritual knowledge to the curious…, inculcate religious behaviour in the masses and provide personal guidance to seekers for their spiritual upliftment”. The HJS, which is a branch of the Sanstha, was set up in 2002 with the intention of establishing a “Hindu Rashtra” in India. It is also headed by Athavale. However, the Karnataka SIT has for operational reasons refrained from officially naming the Sanstha and HJS in the murders of Lankesh and others. While the six persons arrested in Maharashtra recently are members of different groups, their social media profiles show that they attended functions organised by the Sanstha and HJS. For instance, Raut was a regular at the annual conclaves held by the Sanstha in Goa and his local gau rakshak group provided logistical support to programmes organised by the Sanstha in Nala Sopara.
Read |  Among six arrests, a cow vigilante, Dabholkar ‘shooter’
Gondhalekar, whose role in the Lankesh murder case is being probed by the Karnataka ATS, is documented on the HJS website — with pictures — as a frequent attendee in programmes, including press conferences. According to a report and photograph on the HJS website, Gondhalekar held a press meet in September 2016 to accuse Dabholkar of financial fraud.
“Pangarkar was also associated with the HJS. The Facebook profiles of Kalaskar and Andure show that they were affiliated to the HJS and they both knew Tawde. When all of this is pieced together, the probe points not only to the HJS but also Sanatan Sansthan,” explained the official.
The six arrested; (clockwise from top left) Sudhanva Gondhalekar, Vaibhav Raut, Sachin Andure, Sharad Kalaskar, Shrikant Pangarkar and Avinash Pawar. The Sanstha and HJS have, in fact, tried to remove links from their websites of association with several persons recently arrested by the Karnataka SIT and authorities in Maharashtra for their alleged roles in the four murders and for reportedly planning fresh shootings and acts of terrorism.
Of the 12 persons arrested by the Karnataka SIT in the Lankesh case, the most glaring association with the Sanstha is that of Amit Degwekar, 38, who claims to be a proofreader for Sanstha mouthpiece Sanatan Prabhat, but was described by then Sanstha spokesman Abhay Vartak as a promoter of the magazine.
Degwekar was arrested by the Karnataka SIT on May 20, 2018, along with former HJS Pune convenor Kale and HJS sympathiser Manohar Edave on the basis of investigations that indicated that Kale alias Bhaisaab was a key player in the operations to kill Lankesh.
Investigation revealed that Degwekar was a key component of a group headed by Kale which has allegedly been involved in murders and subversive activities since 2012, and used youths from fringe groups allied to the Sanstha and HJS, sources in the SIT claimed. While denying any connection between those allegedly involved in the Lankesh killing and the Sanstha, its spokesperson Chethan Rajhans said, “Degwekar is a promoter of Sanatan Prabhat. He used to visit the ashram for work. The Sanstha is involved in spiritual enhancement of Hindus. We are not killers.”
Unlike Degwekar, the links of the others to the HJS and the Sanstha can be disputed.
Kale, an engineer by profession, is being linked to all four murders and has been identified by the Karnataka SIT as the head of the Hindutva covert group. The HJS website has references to Kale as a member of the group and a convenor for the Pune region until 2009-10. Following Kale’s arrest in May, HJS spokesperson Ramesh Shinde said that Kale had not been associated with the group over the last 10 years and that he left it around 2008 for “personal reasons’’. The Karnataka SIT has, however, found that Kale’s family in Pune is still closely associated with the Sanstha and HJS. His child, they say, has been designated by the Sanstha as a gifted child with a “high spirituality quotient since birth”. In 2017, Gondhalekar’s children too were similarly designated by the Sanstha as having “high spiritual quotient” though, according to spokespersons for the Sanstha and HJS, Gondhalekar is not directly linked to either of the two groups.
“There are very few children who get this tag of spirituality… This suggests an association with the group,” sources in the Karnataka SIT said. Among the other 10 persons arrested for the Lankesh murder so far, Sujeet Kumar, a recruiter for the covert group, is a former HJS activist, who, the organisation claims, dissociated from the outfit around 2012. There are, however, articles and photographs on the HJS website of his participation in the organisation’s events.
Similarly, the HJS website has a write-up from 2008 featuring Suresh Kumar alias Suresh H L, a man who allegedly accommodated Kale and Gondhalekar at his home in Bengaluru around the time Lankesh was murdered, at an HJS “anti-terrorism exhibition” held at a school in his hometown in Karnataka.
Rajesh Bangera, 50, a government employee from Mangalore,who became an arms trainer for the covert group around 2012, was among the early trainees at arms and self-defence training camps conducted by the Sanstha in 2001-2003. He lists the Sanstha among his ‘likes’ on Facebook. Bangera’s friend Mohan Nayak, 50, who allegedly helped rent a home for the Lankesh’s shooter and three members of his support team in the Kumbalgodu area, too is associated with the HJS, according to his social media profile.
The first person arrested in connection with Lankesh’s murder, K T Naveen Kumar, a resident of Maddur in Karnataka, who was accused of providing logistical support for the killing, was a leader of the Hindu Yuva Sena. Ahead of his recruitment by the covert group headed by Kale, Kumar was invited to attend the June 2017 edition of the annual All India Hindu Adhiveshan organised in Ponda by the HJS and Sanatan Sanstha. There are images on HJS’s social media accounts of Kumar at the Goa convention.
Sources in the Karnataka SIT say that since 2009, when the Sanstha and Hindu Janajagruti Samiti were directly implicated in the Margao blasts, much of the subsequent covert activities were outsourced to individuals from fringe outfits like the Hindu Yuva Sena, Sri Rama Sena, Shri Shivpratishthan Hindustan and even former Shiv Sena members who worked under the guidance of former HJS activists.
“Till the 2009 blast, many mainstream Hindu leaders used to attend the conclaves organised by the Sanstha and HJS. After the Sanstha was linked to the blast, the group began losing credibility and efforts were made to create a wall between the subversive activities and overground activities like the adhiveshan (national conclaves),” a source said.
Investigators in Maharashtra say that while the six men recently arrested seemed to have “worked in silos”, they could be involved in multiple cases.
“For instance, the five arrested were part of a module that was planning to carry out blasts in five cities in Maharashtra but one of them, Kalaskar, has confessed that he killed Dabholkar. This shows that unknown to each other, they were involved in other cases,” said a senior ATS officer on condition of anonymity.
“Going by Kalaskar and Andure’s confessions, they were the shooters in the Dabholkar case and carried out the killing on the orders of Kale and Tawde. While Tawde is a leader of the HJS and is currently an accused in the CBI case probing Dabholkar’s killing, Kale has been arrested by the Karnataka SIT in connection with the murder of Lankesh. Tawde is also an accused in the Pansare murder case and there is a strong suspicion that either the shooters are the same or are known to the group. The shooters (Andure and Kalaskar) were trained by Bangera, who has been arrested in the Lankesh case and is suspected to have imparted weapons training to dozens of recruits, including the shooters in the Dabholkar and Lankesh cases,” explained an official.
The road ahead
For now, the fate of the four murder cases hangs on the results of the forensic test that is to be conducted on the fire arm recovered from the residence of Andure’s friend in Aurangabad. If the Forensic Science Laboratory confirms that the weapon was used in the murder of Dabholkar, it could be a major breakthrough as the CBI has so far not been able to lay its hand on it.
As part of the recent raids it carried out, the Maharashtra ATS claimed to have recovered a cache of arms and ammunition, including 20 crude bombs and 16 country-made pistols. There is a possibility that the guns used in the murders since 2013 are among these weapons since Gondhalekar has admitted to having collected and preserved weapons after Lankesh’s killing, sources in the Karnataka SIT said. Five year after Dabholkar’s killing, the CBI is hopeful that they might finally recover the murder weapon. “Despite having a cache of weapons, we suspect that the accused used the same set of weapons in all the murders probably because they were superstitious,” says a CBI official. In spite of the confidence displayed by investigators, questions remain. For instance, the Pune Police arrested Maharashtra-based arms suppliers Manish Nagori and Vilas Khandelwal for Dabholkar’s murder but the two were not chargesheeted for lack of evidence. Besides, the CBI and SIT suspected that Sanstha members Sarang Akolkar and Vinay Pawar were shooters in the Dabholkar case. The agencies had based this on eyewitness accounts, but have1 now named Andure and Kalaskar as shooters.
As police claim that they have more or less pieced together the conspiracy behind the murders, what remains to be seen is how they work their way through this complex maze of characters and motives and whether they have a water-tight case at the end of it.
The six arrested
Avinash Pawar: Member of Shri Shivpratishthan Hindustan, an aide of Gondhalekar
Sudhanva Gondhalekar: Alleged member of Shri Shivpratishthan Hindustan, he is suspected to be an associate of Kale. Participated in HJS functions and featured in Sanatan magazine Sanatan Prabhat. Is a person of interest for the Karnataka SIT probing Lankesh murder
Vaibhav Raut: Coordinator of Hindu Govansh Raksha Samiti, his outfit is said to have provided logistical support for HJS functions in his Nala Sopara neighbourhood
Sachin Andure: HJS follower and also allegedly a shooter in the Dabholkar murder case. Kalaskar’s friend, he too allegedly carried out the murder on the orders of Kale and Tawde. His role in Pansare case is being probed
Sharad Kalaskar: HJS follower and alleged shooter in Dabholkar case, he allegedly carried out the murder on the orders of Kale and Tawde. His role in Pansare killing is being probed
Shrikant Pangarkar: HJS follower and alleged financier and logistic provider for the terror module. Alleged to have undergone training and conducted reconnaissance of the targets in Maharashtra
The others
Durgesh Sawant: An email sent by Sawant, former spokesperson of Sanatan Sanstha, ordering Tawde to “concentrate on Dabholkar” has been cited in the chargesheet as the ‘beginning’ of the conspiracy to kill Dabholkar.
Sarang Akolkar and Vinay Pawar: Sanstha ‘seekers’, wanted since the 2009 Goa blast. Were suspected to have played an active role in the Dabholkar and Pansare murders. Were identified as the shooters in both the cases, but with Andure and Kalaskar now being named as shooters, status unclear.
Rudra Patil: Sanstha ‘seeker’, wanted since 2009 Goa blast. Suspected to have played an active role in Pansare murder.
Amit Degwekar: Resident of the Sanstha ashram in Ponda, Goa, he is suspected to be the link between the Sanstha and activities of a covert group headed by Amol Kale.

India - Gauri Lankesh assassination case: Key accused points to leader of Hindutva outfit

The Indian Express

Gauri Lankesh murder case: Key accused points to leader of Hindutva outfit

Investigations have found that a Bengaluru-based co-ordinator of HJS, Mohan Gowda, allegedly put key accused, K T Naveen Kumar, in touch with this Sanstha unit in the planning phase of the Lankesh murder.

Written by Johnson T A | Bengaluru | Updated: June 11, 2018 10:28:08 am 

At least one senior Karnataka office-bearer of the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, an affiliate of the Sanatan Sanstha, knew about the existence of an “extremist unit” in the parent organisation, according to a probe by a Special Investigation Team of Karnataka Police in the killing of journalist Gauri Lankesh.
Investigations have found that a Bengaluru-based co-ordinator of HJS, Mohan Gowda, allegedly put key accused, K T Naveen Kumar, in touch with this Sanstha unit in the planning phase of the Lankesh murder. Gowda allegedly connected Naveen Kumar last year to Sujeet Kumar alias Praveen, a 37-year-old Udupi resident, who was part of this unit and was arrested on May 31.
READ | Same gun used to kill Gauri Lankesh and MM Kalburgi: Forensic report
Much of the information pointing to this link has emerged from “a signed voluntary statement” given to the SIT by Naveen Kumar. The Maddur resident was arrested on March 2 for allegedly providing logistical support to a group that came from outside Karnataka to shoot Lankesh at her Bengaluru home on September 5, 2017.
When contacted by The Indian Express, Gowda said: “It is a police conspiracy. We will hold a press conference soon on behalf of the HJS to speak on these issues.”
In his statement, Kumar refers to an annual convention of the Sanstha he attended in Goa’s Ponda in June 2017.
Read | One accused was convenor of Hindu Janjagruti Samiti unit
“On the second day, there was a discussion on the protection of the Hindu dharma… I participated in the discussion and expressed my personal view that the use of weapons and arms is necessary to protect the Hindu dharma… Impressed by my speech, many people congratulated me. Mohan Gowda praised me a lot. I told him I can procure guns and bullets. He told me there were many like-minded people and they would be contacting me in the coming days,” he claims.
According to the statement, a few days after the convention, Kumar received a phone call seeking a meeting from a man who identified himself as “Praveen” — the call was from a public booth. “He told me that my phone number had been provided by Mohan Gowda from Bengaluru,’’ claims the statement.
“I called up Mohan Gowda and asked him about the call… He (Mohan Gowda) told me the caller was part of his organisation and a person with my mindset. He told me to carry on working with the caller,’’ Kumar claims.
A few days later, the statement claims, the caller visited Kumar and his wife at their home, stayed the night and collected a few bullets that were in his possession to verify whether “they could be useful’’.
On August 19 and 20, 2017, the statement claims, the HJS organised an event in Bengaluru, which was attended by the man identified as Praveen. On the last day of the event, Praveen took Kumar to a park near the venue in the Vijayanagar area of Bengaluru and told him that he needed assistance to kill Lankesh, claims the statement.
“He told me Gauri Lankesh had been speaking in an insulting manner about Hindus and Hindu Gods, and that they had decided to kill her,’’ Kumar claims.
Kumar claims he subsequently travelled to a Sanstha ashram in Mangalore on the invitation of a local HJS leader on September 5, 2017, and learnt the next day from TV reports that Lankesh had been killed in Bengaluru.
On May 31, the SIT also arrested Amol Kale, 37, from Pune; Amit Degwekar, 38 from Ponda; and Manohar Edave, 29, from Vijayapura, in connection with the Lankesh case.
Mohan Gowda has previous acknowledged that Naveen Kumar was associated with the HJS. “He is known to us. He attended our adiveshan in Goa last year on our invitation. He has attended dharma sabhas in Bengaluru and a programme on Bhagat Singh. He was also part of a programme held in his own hometown Maddur,’’ Gowda had told The Indian Express earlier.

 

India: Suspect in Gauri Lankesh Murder is linked to Hindutva Far Right

Gauri Lankesh murder: SIT to seek custody of man arrested by Bengaluru police

Over 15 rounds of cartridges of .32 calibre, which are the same as the 7.65 mm cartridges, were seized from Naveen Kumar's possession.

Written by Johnson T A

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/gauri-lankesh-murder-arrest-sit-probe-5083541/

India: Hindu Janajagruti Samiti leader, prime accused in Pansare murder case gets bail

scroll.in - Jan 30 2018

Govind Pansare murder: Kolhapur court grants bail to main accused Virendra Tawde

Tawde was also the ‘key conspirator’ in the murder of writer and rationalist Narendra Dabholkar on August 20, 2013.

Hindu Janajagruti Samiti leader Virendra Tawde, who was the main accused in the murder case of Communist Party of India politician and author Govind Pansare
https://scroll.in/latest/866947/govind-pansare-murder-kolhapur-court-grants-bail-to-main-accused-virendra-tawde

India: Central Bureau of Investigation names Virendra Tawde of the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS) as key conspirator in Narendra Dabholkar murder

The Indian Express

CBI names Virendra Tawde as key conspirator in Narendra Dabholkar murder

On August 20, 2013, Dr Narendra Dabholkar was killed outside his Pune residence while he was out on a morning walk.

By: Express News Service | Mumbai | Published:September 7, 2016 2:33 pm

Naming Dr. Virendra Tawde, an alleged western commander of the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS), an offshoot of the right-wing group, Sanatan Sanstha as the key conspirator in the murder of rationalist Dr. Narendra Dabholkar, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday filed its chargesheet in the case. The chargesheet was filed at a Special CBI Court in Pune.

According to sources, the central agency has also mentioned two alleged Sanatan Sanstha members including Sarang Akolkar as the alleged assassins in the case. The two assassins have been shown as wanted accused in the case.

Tawde was arrested in June this year by the agency after CBI sleuths stumbled upon coded emails exchanges between Tawde and a senior Sanatan Sanstha member where the plan to kill the rationalist was discussed.

On August 20, 2013, Dabholkar was killed outside his Pune residence while he was out on a morning walk.
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During the probe, the CBI has claimed that the Dabholkar murder was planned in 2007 but put on hold by the module to carry out the Goa blast in 2009 on the eve of Diwali. The plan to ‘eliminate’ Dabholkar gathered steam in June of 2013.

In its chargesheet, the CBI has also attached an analysis of the hard dics recovered from the Sanathan Sanstha office in Panvel. The analysis has revealed that the outfit after having three failed attempts of carrying out ‘successful blasts’ in Vashi, Thane and Goa , decided to change their strategy and make it ‘personality specific’, allegedly to eliminate ‘anti-Hindu activists’.

“The analysis of the hard disc reveals that they had a hit-list of anti-Hindu activists which the outfit planned to ‘eliminate’. These personalities were discussed through codes and were referred as ‘rakshahas’ (demons) by the members,” a senior official told The Indian Express.

India - Maharashtra: Dabholkar murder case - Explain stand vis a vis Sanatan Sanstha and HJS, asks family

Dabholkar murder case: Explain stand on Sanatan Sanstha and HJS, asks family

Incidentally, former CM Prithviraj Chavan also made the same demand on Saturday, urging the state government and the CM to declare their intention vis-a-vis certain “dangerous organisations”.

Written by Manoj Dattatreya More | Pune | Updated: August 20, 2017 3:36 am

FOUR years after the murder of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar, the family of the slain activist on Saturday said it was still waiting for justice and wondering whether it will ever get justice. The family’s disbelief stems from the fact that the Maharashtra government, led by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, has “neither taken any drastic step nor shown any intention” to act tough against certain organisations which are “brazenly” targeting intellectuals and crusaders. Incidentally, former CM Prithviraj Chavan also made the same demand on Saturday, urging the state government and the CM to declare their intention vis-a-vis certain “dangerous organisations”. [. . .] http://indianexpress.com/article/india/dabholkar-murder-case-explain-stand-on-sanatan-sanstha-and-hjs-asks-family-4804597/ 

India: A convention of Hindu fundamentalists held in Goa calls for abolition of democracy and for establishing a Hindu theocratic state

O Herald [Goa]

Hindu convention calls for abolition of democracy

 

15 Jun 2017 

Says Hindu nation is the only remedy to all problems

Team Herald

PONDA: A convention of Hindu fundamentalists on Wednesday called for abolition of the Indian democracy and establishment of a Hindu nation. 

 

The convention, the sixth of its nature, is being held at Vidyadhiraj meeting hall of Ramnath Temple, Ponda, on the topic “Need for unity of Hindu community and Saints for establishing the Hindu Nation.” 

Calling the present system as a “pseudo democracy imposed by the British”, Hindu Janajagruti Samiti national spokesperson Ramesh Shinde said that prior to the arrival of the Muslim invaders and the British, India was a capable Hindu nation. However, he implied, the Muslim invasion and the British rule crippled the country therefore, he said, “we are making the blue print of removing the pseudo democracy imposed on us by the British.”

Resenting that they are “being ridiculed as a fringe organisation” for their effort at uniting Hindus and Hindu organisations at the national level, he lamented, “Today, there is no ban on those who give the slogan ‘O’ India, you will break up.” Instead, he said, there is a demand to ban the All India Hindu Convention that is propagating the establishment of the Hindu Nation through democratic means.

Sanatan preacher Sadhwi Saraswati, speaking at the inaugural session of the convention, emphasised that Hindus abjure violence and that “There is no such thing as saffron terrorism. Saffron means dedicated life for the Nation and Dharma.”

Claiming that there are demands for banning Sanatan and Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, Sadhwi Saraswati warned that any such ban would be counterproductive because, she said, “If a ban was imposed on Sanatan or Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, several Sanatans will grow out of them.”

Yati Ma Chetananand Saraswati, another speaker, appealed to Hindus to display bravery to protect Hindu Dharma as, “Today, several assaults are taking place on the Hindu Dharma.”

Dr Charudatta Pingale, the national guide of Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, claimed that the Indian Constitution is discriminatory towards the Hindus and that they are denied justice under the present democratic system. Therefore, he said, “Hindu Nation is the only remedy (to all the problems faced by the Hindus). Establishing the Hindu Nation is not merely a thought for us, it is a Holy observance.”

The Convention is being attended by more than 538 representatives of more than 132 Hindu organisations from 21 States, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

India: The Vitriolic Fringe Is Mainstream

Huffington Post (India)

Why Every 'Nationalist' Indian Should Be Alarmed That The Fringe Is Creeping Into The Mainstream

When the law is regarded as a hindrance that holds a true deshbhakt back.

16/06/2017

 Sandip Roy 

A Haryana court has just issued a non-bailable warrant against Baba Ramdev for telling a public gathering last year that he could "behead lakhs of people refusing to chant 'Bharat Mata ki Jai'" if he was not "bound by law". Ramdev's yogic powers probably do not extend to being a human guillotine for lakhs.

What he said was most like just a manner of speaking, an outburst of deeply felt patriotism rather than, as the law puts it, "an intentional insult with intent to provoke the breach of peace". But what it points to is something becoming far more commonplace in India these days – the violence of words.

Perhaps social media has inured us to this. We are not that shocked anymore that those who take a different viewpoint than ours should be threatened with dismemberment and rape. An MP from the ruling party has no qualms about "joking" or perhaps just "half-joking" about tying a writer to an Army jeep as a human shield in Kashmir.

Now at the Hindu Rashtra conclave in Goa, Sadhvi Saraswati, named after the Goddess of education and learning, has said that those who support consumption of beef should be publicly executed. Those who are secular must be "attacked first" because pehle Hindu ko Hindu banana hai (first we need to make those who are Hindu into real Hindus). Muslims and Christians need to do gharwapsi. And if a little thing like the Constitution gets in the way, that's not an issue. The Hindu Janajagriti Samiti thinks the constitution that matters is the "one that was written by Ram and Krishna."

It would be easy to say that these firebrand Sadhvis are best ignored and not given media oxygen to propagate their vitriol. They are the fringe and it is media attention that makes them mainstream. But the violence of words left unchallenged can quickly go beyond words. We have seen it over and over again.

But the violence of words left unchallenged can quickly go beyond words. We have seen it over and over again.

Sadhvi Saraswati might only be "saying" that those who support consumption of beef should be publicly executed. But we live in a country where gangs of so-called gau rakhshaks roam the highways looking to lynch those who they suspect of trafficking in cows. In a time of Alwar and Dadri, a Sadhvi Saraswati is not just hot air. She is tapping into something far more deadly, deliberately stoking a fire.
Likewise a Baba Ramdev is not just being melodramatic in the name of patriotism. His statement basically shows a contempt for the law that gets in the way of his brand of take-no-prisoners patriotism. When the law is regarded as a hindrance that holds a true deshbhakt back, something that ties his hands, is it any surprise that those JNU students accused of raising secessionist slogans were beaten on the premises of a courthouse itself?

When the law is regarded as a hindrance that holds a true deshbhakt back, something that ties his hands, is it any surprise that those JNU students accused of raising secessionist slogans were beaten on the premises of a courthouse itself?

In a culture where we threaten violence at the drop of a hat or a dissenting point of view, why is it a surprise when actions follow words and spill over into real violence? Thus it's hardly surprising that when the national anthem plays in a movie theatre, as is mandatory now, we are not content with just standing for it. The true patriot is one who goes and thrashes anyone not standing in the darkened theatre. In this theatre of violence our performance of patriotism is not complete until everyone is marching in lockstep to our beat.
Or chanting Jai Shree Ram. A video has surfaced that shows two men thrashing an apparently mentally-challenged woman in Rajasthan and commanding her to say "Jai Shree Ram" and "Jai Hanuman" as she screams and cries for help. Two men have been arrested and it's too early to say what the real motivations were for the attack. A police officer says the woman was suspected of entering their fields with "ill intention". The video suggests that the men who beat her also said "Bol Allah".

Whether it is Allah or Ram we have fallen a long way from Raghupati Raghava Raja Ram, Ishwar Allah Tero Naam.

But it's worth noting, whatever the real motivations, the attack comes under the cover of Jai Shree Ram where Lord Ram, the man who went into battle to rescue Sita from Ravana, is now being invoked to beat a woman. Whether it is Allah or Ram we have fallen a long way from Raghupati Raghava Raja Ram, Ishwar Allah Tero Naam.

AFP/Getty Images

A Bajrang Dal instructor keeps a 'Trishul' or 'Trident' inside a special pocket with a symbol of Hindu Religion 'Aum' printed, to be given to the Bajrangdal volunteers on the last day of a 7 day youth camp at The Koteshwar Swaminarayan Gurukul on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on May 20, 2012.

We can dismiss all this as the work of fringe elements. But the fringe is creeping into mainstream because it operates with relative impunity. And perhaps the mainstream is not unhappy to let it do so because it sees these acts as consolidating the base rather than splintering it. The politics of the "other" is a toxic force but a powerful one and the Baba Ramdevs and Sadhvi Saraswatis are together creating bright and bold lines that define the "other". Political parties can reap the benefit of that polarization.
It's a strategy that's worked well even in the United States. The violence of Trump's rhetoric in his rallies, his exhortations to his followers to beat up the "other" and his half-joking promise to pay their legal bills evoked gasps of horror in the mainstream media. But it worked as Hilary Clinton discovered to her chagrin.
The most comprehensive data survey to be released about the 2016 election by the Voter Study Group has shown that while job worries, economic populism were all factors, they were no more driving forces in this election than they had been in previous one.
The real impetus in the last election was not anxiety about the economy but anxiety about Mexicans, Muslims and blacks, basically a fear of the other. It was an anxiety exacerbated by the election of Barack Obama about America being stolen from "real Americans".

And if you need help in figuring who is real or who is not look no further than UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath. He has just helped spell out who is the "other".

In India, our mainstream politicians are far more careful about what they say than the loose-lipped Trump. But here too we are seeing a growing narrative of who is a real Indian and who is not and of taking back the country in the name of the real Indian as was made clear from this chilling Firstpost video of Bajrang Dal training camps arming schoolchildren in the name of protecting Hindu culture from the "other".
And if you need help in figuring who is real or who is not look no further than UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath. He has just helped spell out who is the "other". He told a public meeting that it was good foreign dignitaries are gifted a copy of the Gita and the Ramayan when they come to India these days. In old days, foreign VIPs were "gifted replicas of the Taj Mahal and other minarets which did not reflect Indian culture."
 

India: Govt should hang people who eat beef says Sadhvi Saraswati [hindu women preacher] at convetion of Hindu Janajagriti Samiti in Goa

The Indian Express

Govt should hang people who eat beef: Sadhvi in Goa

Stating that Hindus need to save their daughters from “love-jihad”, Saraswati said, “Agar hum shastra nahi rakhenge toh aanewale samay mein hamara vinaash hoga (if we do not stock arms, we will be destroyed in future).”

Written by Smita Nair | Ponda | Published:June 15, 2017

STATING THAT she will “request” the Central government to hang people who eat beef as “status symbol”, Sadhvi Saraswati, from Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh, on Wednesday urged Hindus to stock arms at home to “save our women from love jihad”.

She made the remarks at the inauguration of a four-day All India Hindu Convention, organised by the Hindu Janajagriti Samiti, which is allied to the Sanathan Sanstha. Some members of the Sanstha stand accused in the murder of rationalist and anti-superstition activist Narendra Dabholkar in Pune in 2013. The RSS, BJP and VHP had earlier distanced themselves from the event and the organisation, and no leader representing them were present at the Ponda event.

Sadhvi Saraswati, who drew the loudest cheer, said at the inaugural session that the “biggest challenge” today is not converting a non-Hindu to Hinduism. “Pehle Hindu ko hi Hindu banana hai (first we need to convert a Hindu to Hindu) — that is our biggest challenge today… They are in the garb of seculars… these seculars are the first who will be attacked,” she said.

On beef-eating, she said, “Jo vyakti apne ma (gau mata) ka maas khaane ko apna status symbol maanta hai, aisi vyaktiyon ko Bharat sarkar se nivedan karti hoon, phaansi pe latkana chahiye. beech chaurahey pe latkana chahiye… tab logon ko pata chalega ki gau mata ki rakhsa karna hamara kartavya hai (People who take it as status symbol to eat beef… I request the Centre to hang them in public. People will then understand that cow protection is our responsibility).”

Stating that Hindus need to save their daughters from “love-jihad”, Saraswati said, “Agar hum shastra nahi rakhenge toh aanewale samay mein hamara vinaash hoga (if we do not stock arms, we will be destroyed in future).”
Abhay Vartak, national spokesperson for Sanstha, who spoke after Saraswati, took on the BJP as well. “There are BJP ministers in Goa who speak in support of beef; in the North-East, a minister says he eats beef; in Delhi, a Union minister says that he loves beef. Is gau mata food for them?”

India: AAP leader moves Supreme Court seeking protection of life, citing threat from ‘Right-wing bodies’

The Hindu

AAP leader moves SC citing threat from ‘Right-wing bodies’

Krishnadas Rajagopal
NEW DELHI, May 25, 2017 00:00 IST

On hit list?The AAP leader said communications addressed to Home Minister Rajnath Singh and the Delhi Police chief about the threats had gone unanswered.File photo

Ashish Khetan files plea under Section 32 of Constitution, matter posted for June 5

Social activist and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Ashish Khetan on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court with an urgent plea seeking protection of life, liberty and freedom of speech and expression from “radical Right-wing extremist” organisations.

Receiving death threats

In a mentioning before the Vacation Bench of L. Nageswara Rao and Navin Sinha, Mr. Khetan’s counsel and advocate Sunil Fernandes said his client had been receiving death threats from these organisations.

The court has now posted the case for June 5.

Mr. Khetan said communications addressed to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and the Delhi Police Commissioner about the threats had gone unanswered. In his writ petition, he said that even Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had written to the Home Minister, but to no avail.

The petition filed under Article 32 of the Constitution said that “to the utter shock and dismay of the petitioner [Khetan], neither the Home Department under the aegis of Rajnath Singh nor the Police Commissioner, Delhi, had responded to the threats”.

Mr. Khetan, who is vice-chairman of the Dialogue and Development Commission of Delhi, named Sanatan Sanstha, Abhinav Bharat, Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, Hindi Rakshak Samiti, Bajrang Dal, Durga Vahini, Sri Ram Sene, Vishwa Hindu Parishad in his petition.

“Such radical organisations have in the last couple of years carried out several murderous attacks on those who do not share their ideology and those who are rationalists, secularists, free-thinkers, anti-superstition and critical thinkers. Many members of these organisations have been convicted for their involvement in mass violence in several parts of the country,” the petition said.

‘Genuine basis’

The AAP leader alleged that such organisations had gained in prominence since 2014 and that the government had failed to discharge its duty to safeguard liberty and free speech.

“These organisations have sought to silence the voices of people like the petitioner by threats, intimidation, violence and even outright murder,” the petition said.

It added that Mr. Khetan had “genuine and reasonable basis” to believe that he would meet a fate similar to noted rationalists and public intellectuals like Dr. Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare and M.M. Kalburgi. “He [Khetan] has been threatened that he is next in line,” the petition said.

‘Chilling reminder’

Alleging that these organisations flaunt their contempt for constitutional democracy, Mr. Khetan compared them to organisations allegedly operating in Pakistan.

“They rely on supremacist ideology of their religion and inferiority of other faiths. They take recourse to the bullet rather than informed debate and discussion,” the AAP leader contended.

He added that he had worked on several investigative articles on right-wing extremist organisations during his 17-year career as a journalist.

Mr. Khetan said the threats issued to him were a “chilling reminder of the growing confidence of the anti-national and fascist forces who want to crush all dissent”.

Mr. Khetan’s petition also mentioned that threats had been directed at a CBI officer – Nanda Kumar Nair.

Indi a: Right wing outfits with their agendas driven by violence and hooliganism now get more clout

The Indian Express

Fringe right wing outfits now get more clout than they can claim

It is disconcerting to know that peripheral political outfits like Hindu Yuva Vahini (with their agendas driven by violence and hooliganism) can do what they want, without facing any dire repercussions for their actions from the State.

Written by Radhika Iyengar | Updated: May 17, 2017

Right-wing political fringe parties in India are thriving. A majority of these nationalist outfits are driven by violence and unchecked hooliganism. In the larger scheme of things, they claim more power and authority than they ideally should.
Before the rise of Yogi Adityanath and his subsequent possession of Uttar Pradesh’s Chief Ministerial throne, the Hindu Yuva Vahini, a political outfit assembled by Adityanath himself, carried an identity which was almost unknown to national consciousness. It rarely made it to mainstream media or political conversations. With Adityanath’s ascent, however, the nascent political vigilante group assumed new-found power (due to its association with the Chief Minister), catapulting itself into the forefront. It transformed from a small political wing in Gorakhpur to a self-proclaimed political organ, functioning for a larger cause – spearheading a movement that would defend the Hindu cause.
Last month, HYV activists allegedly murdered a 60-year-old Ghulam Mohammad in Bulandshahr, holding him responsible for assisting a Hindu-Muslim couple elope. In another incident, HYV activists barged into a church in Maharajganj during a prayer meeting, accusing the pastor of compelling Hindus to convert to Christianity. Miles away in Meerut, the activists assaulted a Muslim couple. In the same month, Bajrang Dal activists teamed with BJP workers and assaulted police officers in Agra. Soon the Chief Minister cautioned the parties, asking them not to take law into their own hands. Adityanath’s advice seemed perfunctory, lacking the ire it deserved.
It is disconcerting to know that peripheral political outfits can wield such clout – one which is rooted in violence and hooliganism – without facing any dire repercussions for their actions. In January 2017, members of the Shri Rashtriya Rajput Karni Sena (SRRKS) – a fringe political group, allegedly barged onto the sets of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmavati in Jaipur and vandalised it. The charge was that Bhansali’s film was distorting Indian history. Again, the state government’s response was disturbing. It stated that Padmavati would only be released once it was “cleared” by SRRKS members. In The Indian Express, Rajasthan’s Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Arun Chaturvedi was quoted as saying that the “government’s stand is that the filmmakers won’t be allowed to shoot Padmavati in Rajasthan anymore. As for its release, that can happen only once its script is bereft of all objections which have been raised” by SRRKS.
In another incident, during the release of PK, a film which featured Aamir Khan, right-wing Hindu outfit Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS) called for an immediate ban on the movie claiming it hurt Hindu religious sentiments, since PK was “ridiculing” Hindu rituals and traditions. Recently, in the aftermath of the controversy surrounding Perumal Murugan’s novel, Madhorubhagan (One Part Woman), Sahitya Akademi chose to award Aniruddhan Vasudevan, who had translated Perumal’s novel to English. However, Hindu Makkal Katchi, a far-right political party in Tamil Nadu, opposed the committee’s decision, demanding that the award be withdrawn and the book be banned immediately.
There is an important distinction between a ban and the call for boycott. Boycotting is a method for objection which is acceptable in a democracy, where individuals are given the right to decide whether they want to support something or not. Banning a film or a book, however, takes away an individual’s right to decide – not only does this threaten one’s freedom of expression and choice, but it’s also a step in the direction of the collapse of a democracy.
Dharam Jagaran Samanvay Samiti aligned its mission with the Ghar Wapsi programme. In 2014, the party’s head, Rajeshwar Singh told India Today, the party’s goals of making India a “Hindu Rashtra” by 2021. “The Muslims and Christians don’t have any right to stay here,” he said. “So they would either be converted to Hinduism or forced to run away from here.” DJS was also driven by the ‘shuddikaran’ (cleansing) programme, one where the party stated that it had allegedly converted 0ver 315 people to Hinduism, who belonged to rural parts of Varanasi.
In the larger scheme of things, in India, these fringe political outfits should not be allowed to wield the kind of power they are allowed to.

India: How the Far-right uses a strategy to defame - excerpt from Dhirendra Jha's book on Shadow Armies

Hindustan Times - May 10, 2017

Book excerpt: How a right-wing radical group uses defamation as a tool to harass critics

In his new book, Shadow Armies, journalist Dhirendra K. Jha investigates eight right-wing fringe organisations and offers a detailed account of their evolution, means and methods, and links to the Hindutva ideology that fires them.

[photo caption] A campaign in progress in Virar, Maharashtra, to create awareness about the murder of doctor and rationalist Narendra Dabholkar. Dr Dabholkar was shot down by two unidentified gunmen while out on a morning walk in August 2013. He was posthumously awarded the Padma Shri for social work in 2014.(Wikimedia Commons)

The revelation of the connection between the Sanstha and the murders might have shocked the world but the organization is flagrantly unapologetic. ‘Our opposition to Dabholkar and Pansare is at the intellectual level,’ Abhay Vartak, the spokesman of the Sanstha, said in an interview in October 2015. ‘There is absolutely no violence and extremism in our ideology. We believe in elimination of the root cause rather than treating the symptoms.’

Equally striking is the Sanstha’s manic persistence in suing its critics for libel. A strong band of lawyers, organized under the Hindu Vidhidnya Parishad (HVP), appear to constitute a vital aspect of Athavale’s ‘spiritual’ mission. ‘These lawyers work very hard to protect sadhaks who are caught in various blast or murder cases and try to intimidate journalists and critics through a large number of defamation suits they have filed against them,’ says Vijay Namdeo Rokade, whose Public Interest Litigation from 2011 seeking a ban on the Sanstha is still pending in the Bombay High Court.

Before they were murdered, Dabholkar and Pansare had to attend to a whole lot of defamation cases filed against them by the Sanstha. Eighteen defamation cases – both criminal and civil – had been registered against Dabholkar. ‘Though none of the criminal cases against him led to a conviction, six civil suits were still pending in August 2013 when Dabholkar was killed,’ says Rahul Thorat, who is also fighting a number of such cases. According to him, the Sanstha does not appear to be interested in pursuing these cases, it simply means to intimidate those who dare to write or speak against them.

‘They have filed eleven cases against me for my writings. A few cases I have won, while others are pending. Sometimes they file a criminal case as well as a civil suit on the same issue.’

Though Athavale had earlier been surrounded by a band of lawyer disciples, the decision to organize them under the HVP was taken in 2012, when the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti – a Sanatan Sanstha outfit intended to eventually grow into an umbrella organization of all Hindu groups – held its first annual convention on the premises of the Ramnath Temple at Ramnathi. ‘Providing legal service to the Guru is part of their sadhana,’ says a lawyer who was once attached to the HVP. ‘Every effort made in the courtroom by a Sanstha lawyer gets counted when his sadhana is measured by the Guru. There are plenty of them and so there is no need to outsource the Sanstha’s legal requirements,’ says the Mumbai-based lawyer while requesting anonymity for fear of reprisal.

An article published in the Hindu on 27 September 2015 examines how the Sanstha lawyers use defamation as a tool to harass critics and opponents. The bulk of the litigation, according to the article, is in the courts of Mumbai and Panjim, though a good number have been filed in several other places in Maharashtra and Goa. Much of these are defamation cases against publications, journalists, editors and activists. The Sanstha’s common tactic is to register a case outside the base of a publication or a reporter on the grounds that a particular article was read elsewhere. Asim Sarode, a Pune advocate who briefly represented journalists in a defamation case involving the Marathi magazine Chitralekha, describes the Sanstha members as employing intimidation tactics against defendants and their lawyers. ‘The sadhaks gather outside court premises, they laugh at you, taunt you and even threaten you…I experienced this when I was appearing in the Goa court. I used to change my route while travelling to Goa, avoiding the Ponda mountain pass.’ Sarode eventually had to write to the Maharashtra Home Department seeking protection.

‘[These are] the same tactics the Sanstha used in Ramnathi to silence villagers who were demanding, after the Madgaon blast in 2009, that its ashram be shifted from the village,’ says Basant Bhatt, the priest who led the agitation. ‘They filed three cases against me. All of them were meaningless. One of them is still pending in the court.’

The cases against Bhatt seem to have scared the villagers and dampened the agitation against the Sanstha. Sheker Naik, the former sarpanch of the Bandora Panchayat and another leader of the agitation, has also been bogged down with lawsuits. ‘There was resentment against the ashram, but the fear of legal harassment made the villagers inactive for a while,’ he says.

The murder of rationalists like Dabholkar, Pansare and Kalburgi once again brought the Sanstha into focus and revived the villagers’ efforts to get rid of the ashram. The lead this time was taken by the Ramnath Yuvak Sangh, a local social outfit of village youth. In a press conference on 30 September 2015, a few days after the arrest of Samir Gaikwad in the Pansare murder case, the outfit’s president, Saurabh Lotlikar, demanded that the Sanstha’s ashram be removed from the village. ‘People here do not want them in the locality because no one knows what they do,’ he told mediapersons. Alleging that the Sanstha trained people to target others, he said: ‘With all the news appearing, people are suspicious and do not want them to be here.’

Excerpted with permission from Shadow Armies: Fringe Organizations and Foot Soldiers of Hindutva, Dhirendra K. Jha, Juggernaut.

India: Bombay HC expresses dissatisfaction over tardy progress in Pansare, Dabholkar cases

The New Indian Express

Bombay HC expresses dissatisfaction over tardy progress in Pansare, Dabholkar cases

By Online Desk | Published: 20th January 2017 04:48 PM |

Last Updated: 20th January 2017 04:48 PM | A+A A- |

Bombay High Court | PTI

MUMBAI: Expressing dissatisfaction over the pace of progress in the Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare murder cases, the Bombay High Court said it was "very unhappy" even as Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) informed the court that Scotland Yard has refused to help in the forensic probe on the ground that there was no legal bond between the UK and India for sharing data.

A bench of Justices S C Dharmadhikari and B P Colabawalla said there was also no development in the proceedings of trial courts in Pune and Kolhapur which are trying Dabholkar and Pansare murder cases, respectively.

The CBI had informed the High Court earlier that it had sent forensic evidence to Scotland Yard to seek its opinion on whether same weapons were used in the murders of Dabholkar and Pansare in Maharashtra and the killing of another rationalist M M Kalburgi in Karnataka.

"Scotland Yard has informed us in writing that no legal agreement existed between the two countries on sharing of forensic data and hence it will not help by conducting a forensic probe into these murder cases," Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh told a division bench hearing petitions filed by the families of the two slain rationalists.

CBI also submitted in a sealed cover a forensic report from Ahmedabad Forensic Laboratory on ballistic evidence related to the killing of the three rationalists. This is the third ballistic report from a forensic lab, the other two being that of labs in Mumbai and Bengaluru.

The CBI, probing Dabholkar's murder, and the Special Investigating Team (SIT) of state CID, probing the killing of Pansare, also submitted reports in separate sealed covers to the high court on the progress made in these two cases.

The judges asked the investigation agencies not to reveal the contents to anyone, including media, as the probe was still on.

SIT counsel Ashok Mundargi said, "The probe in Pansare killing is on. We have identified two absconding suspects. The chargesheet has been filed and we are investigating further."

On a plea made by the two agencies seeking eight weeks time to conduct further probe, the bench deferred the matter till March 20.

November last year, the CBI and SIT probes had named Dr Virendra Tawde of Sanatan Sanstha offshoot Hindu Janajagruti Samiti as the key conspirator in both the cases.

Pansare, known for his rationalist views, was shot dead in Kolhapur on February 20, 2015. His wife too was injured in the attack.

Dabholkar, a noted anti-superstition activist and rationalist, was murdered in Pune on August 20, 2013.

India: Charge sheet filed against Hindu Janajagruti Samiti member Dr. Virendra Tawde in Pansare’s murder case

The Hindu

Charge sheet filed against Tawde in Pansare’s murder

Sonam Saigal
Mumbai: November 30, 2016 00:00 IST

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) filed its charge sheet against Dr. Virendra Tawde in the Govind Pansare murder case at a Kolhapur court on Tuesday.

Talking to The Hindu , special public prosecutor Harshad Nimbalkar, appearing in the case, said evidence to show the conspiracy hatched by him has been collected and there is enough material to establish that Dr. Tawde had done the recce to commit the crime and it is taken on record. “There is enough material to show that several meetings were held between Sameer Gaikwad, Dr. Tawde and two other absconding accused Rudra Patil and Sarang Akolkar in the case,” he added.

Mr. Nimbalkar said, all the evidence highlight the conspiracy and his motive. “We have a number of statements of witnesses under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure where confessions are recorded by a magistrate. It’s a voluminous charge sheet,” he added.

When asked on the next step in the case, Mr. Nimbalkar said, charges will be framed against him. On December 4, Sameer Gaikwad’s criminal petition is slated to be heard at the Bombay High Court which will now be clubbed with that of Dr. Tawde.

Requesting anonymity a senior police official told The Hindu that 50 to 55 witnesses have deposed in the case. Govind Pansare's wife Uma has identified the two gunmen from sketches which has helped in filing of the charge sheet, the officer said.

On September 3, Dr. Tawde, a qualified ENT surgeon and a member of Hindu Janajagruti Samiti — a splinter of the Sanatan Sanstha — was picked up by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) from Navi mumbai in June this year.

He has been chargesheeted by the CBI in the murder of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar in August 2013.

Pansare was a Communist Party of India leader and an author. He was shot dead in Kolhapur in February 2015 while he was on his morning walk.

Talking to The Hindu , his daughter Megha said, “We expect justice, and have full faith in the judiciary. The chargesheet has been filed after thorough investigation. We hope for the best.”

India - Narendra Dabholkar Murder Case: CBI Arrests Hindu Janajagruti Member Virendra Singh Tawde

Narendra Dabholkar Murder Case: CBI Arrests Hindu Janajagruti Member Virendra Singh Tawde

http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2016/06/11/narendra-dabholkar-murder_n_10413078.html

India - Maharashtra: Joint human chain by women’s wing of the Shiv Sena, the Sanatan Sanstha, the Hindu Janajagruti Manch and its Ran Ragini Shakha

The Indian Express
A State For Men
Shani Shingnapur faceoff shows how it caves in to male bias.

Written by Mrinal Pande | Published: April 6, 2016 12:05 am

Trupti Desai, leader of the Bhumata Brigade, being dragged away by police during an attempt to offer prayers at the Shani Shingnapur temple. (Express Photo) Trupti Desai, leader of the Bhumata Brigade, being dragged away by police during an attempt to offer prayers at the Shani Shingnapur temple. (Express Photo)

No law permits temples to allow men and prevent women from entering and offering worship within the garbha griha. But no such law is needed. Because when on Saturday, April 2, hundreds of women led by Trupti Desai, president of the Bhumata Ranragini Brigade, tried to enter the Shani Shingnapur temple in Ahmednagar district, they were stopped and the law enforcement agencies of the state did nothing to protect them. Even though the women were waving orders of a division bench of the Bombay High Court declaring that, under the 1956 Maharashtra place of worship act, the 400-year-old males-only entitlement to the sanctum sanctorum of the Shani Shingnapur temple stands cancelled. No law permitted the locals and the women’s wing of the Shiv Sena, the Sanatan Sanstha, the Hindu Janajagruti Manch and its Ran Ragini Shakha to jointly form human chains and forcibly prevent the court orders from being implemented. None was necessary, since neither the lawmakers nor the implementation machinery of the state provided any shield to Trupti and her friends from being physically blocked and attacked by status quoists.

Obviously, in the town that houses the Shani temple, it is not the laws of the state but custom and religious laws that still rule. And armed with those, the local society, in turn, can support an entitlement that was outlawed six decades ago. No wonder that when the judiciary extends legal cover to women beyond social and/ or state-sanctioned limits, it is seen not as an instance of the majesty of the law asserting itself, but simply as judicial activism. Is proof still needed about how illiberal, illegal and grossly gender discriminatory customs will continue to be legitimised by social sanction and protected by the law enforcers in India? No wonder, when matters such as personal laws and right to worship are adjudicated on and liberal laws are bandied about as proof of women having some sort of equality under our jurisprudence, the status quo supporters rush to publicise it as a threat to community and then justify their stonewalling young women’s agitation for asserting their legal rights on grounds of their debatable sexual purity, given their predilection for regular and impurity-invoking menstruation.

“When does a state begin to die?” asks the Yaksha of Dharmraj Yudhishthir in the Mahabharata. “When it loses its hold over justice,” says Yudhishthir. After this confrontation, what is justice from women’s point of view? Today, while the judiciary has upheld the law of the land, the state has revealed itself on the side of a value system that remains pro-male in its operative norm. And so, coupled with the silence of the honourable chief minister, what is essentially male objectivity seems to be what the state’s perception of itself is. Question is, how does such a state legitimate itself in the eyes of women as a fair and objective upholder of the law? Obviously by reflecting its view of society and how it may mould it into a fair and balanced one, the law enforcers also accept a version of the state that discriminates in favour of men by privileging their power with a nod and a wink. This results in a separation in law of form and substance, and adjudication from legislative activity.

It is unclear whether special protective measures, if they come now, after the media has gone to town about this awful confrontation, will help or hurt women. The legal ruling did something for uplifting their morale, but the enforcers’ reluctance to implement the law in letter and spirit has demeaned all women ideologically, whether or not they wish to visit this particular shrine. Lesson learnt: However autonomous of class and caste the liberal state may appear today, it is not autonomous of gender biases. Male power (and also its manifestation in women from rightwing fringe groups) has once again revealed itself to be systemic, legitimised at least in the eyes of the police and local administration, and also epistemic.

India: Free speech? These designers are Hindu Janajagruti Samiti's latest victims (Durga M Sengupta)

catchnews.com

Photo: Facebook/ScrollDroll

Free speech? These designers are Hindu Janajagruti Samiti's latest victims

Durga M Sengupta @the_bongrel

|10 March 2016

ScrollDroll, an online media portal that adds humour to the mundane with their clever designs, has gotten into some trouble with the protectors of Hindutva.
A series of cartoons with Hindu gods in the time of social media, that their co-founder Rohit Bose considered "cute", offended the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS). HJS quickly sent a polite letter to the guys at ScrollDroll which read:

"We would like to bring to your attention that using the Hindu Gods Shri Ganapati , Shri Vishnu and Deity Hanuman in the name of creativity is insulting Them and very offensive to Hindus around the world. This leads to tarnishing the image of Gods and Hinduism. It also hurts the religious sentiments of Hindus.
"Would you create similar caricatures of Prophets and Holy figures of other major religions?

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"We would like to mention here that hurting religious feelings leads to an offence as per the Indian Penal Code section 295A."
If was signed off with, "Please acknowledge this letter and inform us in writing about action taken by you, failing which, we will be forced to start a protest campaign. Awaiting prompt action and reply."

This letter, marked to Rohit, co-founder Ashwani and Info@ScrollDroll, was sent on 2 March.
On not having received a response from SD, HJS on 7 March sought a "protest against denigration of Hindu Deities by Scrolldroll.com" on their website.
The method of protest was for "supporters of Hinduism" to shoot emails to the founders, whose email IDs were provided in the notice.

Screenshot of the HJS website

Messages pour in

While the Hindu deities cannot speak for their 'denigration', Rohit Bose spoke to Catch about the onslaught of messages filling up his inbox.

Most of the messages are threats to lodge a police complaint and take legal action, but there also have been those who suggested he made cartoons of his mother and sister being abused.

Some of the messages received by the ScrollDroll guys

"I'm a bit scared," says Bose. "We have received hundreds of hate mails and loads of messages."
But would this fear make ScrollDroll take the post down?
"No," says Bose. "We took the Lord Krishna on Myntra post down. At first, we didn't think it was demeaning. But when we looked at it again, we realised it was and removed it."
Here's ScrollDroll's Facebook post:

But beyond that, they don't plan on taking the series down, and they definitely don't see the point to an apology.
"What do we apologise for? What clarification should we give? It makes no sense," says Bose.

How does it offend?

On being asked what the idea for such a design series was, he says, "We had put in a lot of thought, effort and hard work for this."
"Hurting religious sentiments is the last thing we wanted to do. We never thought this would offend or hurt people. People have been saying that we should make similar cartoons for other religions, why target only Hindus."
Bose's reponse to that is that it's a matter of popular culture. "Just like in the West they troll Jesus, make jokes and what not, they don't make cartoons on Indian Gods. And, I don't think we're making fun or demeaning the deities. We have just shown them using today's technology!"
Disturbed at the extreme reactions they have received for something they thought engaging and harmless, he says,"We have not shown any nudity, vulgarity and haven't altered the stories. Just added a phone in their hands and shown them using random apps."
But if it indeed does upset so many devout Hindus, why wouldn't ScrollDroll take the post down?
"Our Gods don't need your protection," says Rohit Bose.

Threat on-call

I sent the ScrollDroll co-founder a message on Facebook before calling him. "Give me your number so that I have it saved before you call. I don't take calls from unknown numbers after receiving that threat," he told me.
The threat in question came from a caller who identified himself as Ashish from Indore.
"Hata do nahi to dekho hum kya karte hain," he had said to Bose.
While his partner sees this as good publicity, Bose isn't so sure.
He just has one simple request to make to all those who consume their work on social media.
"People, please take it lightly. Chill a bit."
-- Edited by Abha Srivastava

Durga M Sengupta @the_bongrel

Feminist and culturally displaced, Durga tries her best to live up to her overpowering ...