Mumbai: Two disciples of the Goa-based Sanatan Sanstha, a spiritual body, have made a startling confession about their role in various bomb blasts across Maharashtra, in 2008. Both were acquitted by the trial court seven years ago, but they want to come clean, claiming they did nothing wrong in that incident. Their sensational disclosures were made on a leading television news channel.
Mangesh Dinkar Nikam (45), who was acquitted in the bomb attacks at Thane, Panvel and Vashi in Maharashtra has admitted that he did plant the explosives. Identifying himself as a Sanstha “sadhak,” admitted the bomb that was defused by the disposal squads was an attempt to avenge the “wrongful depiction of Hindu gods and goddesses” in a Marathi play that was running at a Vashi theatre.
Nikam told the undercover reporters “people were parodying our gods and goddesses. We had earlier protested but nothing had happened. So we tried to scare them in this manner.” Nikam said he has been a “seeker” at the Sanatan Sanstha since 2000. He was a regular visitor at the Panvel Ashram. He admitted that the attack plan was drawn at this venue. Sanatan Sanstha, with its centres spread across Maharashtra and Goa is no stranger to controversy.
Their name has cropped up in various bomb blast incidents outside various theatres in the state, in 2008, over “objectionable depiction of Hinduism” in films and dramas. Haribhau Krishna Divekar, another 58-year-old Sanstha follower bragged, his role was much bigger than the crime he was tried for and acquitted.
The Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) had described him as a close aide of one of the two convicts in the case, but was acquitted three years later on grounds of insufficient evidence. He said he had handed over weapons to the police when they conducted the searches, but they hda failed to list it in the chargesheet. He claimed he had then stored the explosives for five-six days before the police raid, which included “one or two revolvers and detonators, gelatin sticks and digital meters. There were about 20 gelatin sticks and 23 detonators. They took away all those things.”