After the Special Investigative Team (SIT) of a prominent English news channel India Today secured evidence to prove that two workers of the Goa-based right-wing group Sanatan Sanstha might have been involved in the 2008 Maharashtra bomb blasts, the right-wing outfit has now issued a statement on their website calling the reporters ‘Suspected Terrorists’.
The statement on the website reads, “Two persons recently met few of those acquitted from Thane, Vashi and Margao bomb blast cases and tried to gather information. In many cases of alleged ‘Hindu terrorism’, the accused have been acquitted but the cases are yet to be solved. So the question arises if the real masterminds of these cases have sent these people to gather information.”
The Sanstha has further alleged that these reporters were dressed as ‘Hindus’ but could be ‘Pakistani’ or ISI terrorists. The outfit has sent a letter to senior officials in the Maharashtra government and have demanded immediate action against them.
This claim comes a day after the channel carried their investigative report.
MUMBAI PRESS CLUB CONDEMNS “ACT OF INTIMIDATION”
Demanding a prompt action and proper investigation against Sanatan Sanstha, Mumbai Press Club released a statement on 10 October, Wednesday, for intimidating the journalists and the channel for calling the journalists of India Today “terrorists” on their website.
WHAT IS THE INDIA TODAY INVESTIGATION?
The SIT of India Today revealed in its investigation that the two sadhaks of the Sanatan Sanstha, who were acquitted by a sessions court in Maharashtra for their alleged role in planting explosives in theaters outside Maharashtra’s Thane and Vashi, were involved in the terror plot.
Speaking to the reporters, one of the accused Mangesh Dinkar Nikam confessed on camera and said, “I was at Vashi. I planted it (the IED) and came out. That was my role.”
He further said that in the Vashi case people were the mocking their gods and goddesses in their play, so they tried to scare them away.
Nikam not just confessed that he was involved in the attack, but also said that the attack was planned at the Sanstha’s facility in Panvel.
Another Sanstha follower Haribhau Krishnna Divekar, who was charged for being a close aide of the convicts, confessed to the reporters that he, too, was involved in the terror plot.
He also told the channel that his role was bigger than what was he prosecuted (later acquitted) for.
Haribhau Krishna Divekar confessed that he was in possession of explosives, something he wasn’t charged for.
THESE TACTICS CAN’T SCARE US: RAHUL KANWAL
India Today’s News Director, Rahul Kanwal took to Twitter and said, “If these people think such intimidatory tactics can scare us, they have another thing coming.”
(With inputs from India Today)
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