Ex-Sena man held, sent to ATS custody till Aug 28

Shiv Sena’s former corporator Shrikant Pangarkar, who was arrested on Sunday in connection with a terror conspiracy busted by Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) earlier this month, was on Monday remanded by a city court to ATS’ custody till August 28.

A day after the former Sena leader was arrested from Jalna in Marathwada region, Pangarkar was produced before Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Padalkar who sent the terror plot accused to ATS custody for eight days.

Pangarkar is the fourth person arrested in connection with the terror conspiracy that the ATS uncovered on August 9.  Earlier, the ATS had arrested three right wing activists --Vaibhav Raut (40), Sharad Kalaskar (25) and Sudhnava Ghondhalekar (39), seized a huge chunk of arms and ammunitions  and claimed to have foiled the attempts to engineer terror attacks in Mumbai, Pune, Satara, Solapur and Nala Sopara.

In its plea seeking Pangarkar’s remand, the ATS stated that it had seized a pen drive, hard disks and some incriminating documents were recovered from his residence at Jalna, that prima facie he was funding the three accused arrested earlier and that it wanted to investigate his bank transactions and his link to the arms and ammunition seized in connection with the terror conspiracy.

During  two rounds of seizures made since August 9, the ATS sleuths had earlier seized at least 22 explosives, material required for making at least 50 explosives, 22  country-made pistols, one laptop, six hard-disks, five pen drives, nine mobiles and many SIM cards, a WiFI dongle, a car, a motorcycle and huge chunk of incriminating documents.  The investigators had also unearthed a mini pistol assembling unit at Raut's  Nala Sopara residence and found out the arrested activists would procure matterial required for making pistols and explosives from Uttar Pradesh. 

From key accused Raut’s premises alone, the investigators had seized 12 indigenous explosives, two gelatine sticks, four electronic detonators, 22 non-electronic detonators, safety fuse wires, 1500 grams of white powder, two bottles of poison and ten batteries of six volts.

During the interrogations of the three arrested accused, it was revealed that Pangarkar had helped assemble the explosives and store them.  He had also allegedly funded the questionable activities of the arrested accused.

On its part, the Shiv Sena has distanced itself from Pangarkar by saying that it had no links with him for several years now.  Pangarkar who was a Sena corporator in the Jalna Municipal Council for two terms from December 2001 to December 2011.

Shiv Sena’s Minister of State from Jalna Arjun Khotkar has gone on record saying that Pangarkar had nothing to do with Sena for the past eight years and suggesting that the latter had links with the controversial Hindu outfit, Sanatan Sanstha.

The four arrested right wing activists, including Pangarkar, have been booked under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code and Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.

While Raut and Kalaskar are residents from Nalla Sophara, Gondhalekar hails from Satara in western Maharashtra. Raut was arrested from Nala Sophara, Kalaskar and Gondhlekar were picked up from Vasai.

While Raut has been linked the right-wing outfit Sanataba Sanastha, Gondhlekar has alleged links with Sambhaji Bhide-led Shiv Prathishtan. However, the Sanathan Sanastha has hit out at the ATS for falsely implicating Raut in the terror conspiracy, while the Shiv Prathishtan has distanced itself from Raut and Ghondhalekar.

As part of their investigations, the ATS officials are trying to establish if there are more people behind the conspiracy to engineer terror attacks in Mumbai, Pune, Satara, Solapur and Nala Sophara and if they links with right-wing groups in other states like Karnataka. They are also trying to ascertain if the arrested persons enjoyed political patronage.