The Maharashta Anti-Terrorism Squad on Friday arrested three men for allegedly planning disruptive activities in the State.
They are Vaibav Raut, 40, and Sharad Kalaskar, 25, from Nallasopara, and Sudhanwa Gondhalekar, 39, from Pune. Explosives were seized from the house of Mr. Raut, an alleged member of the Sanatan Sanstha. An ATS officer said the accused were held after tracking two mobile numbers of people “involved” in the planning.
The officer said, “We tracked the numbers to Mr. Raut and Mr. Kalaskar on Thursday night after three days of verification. Eight crude bombs were found in Mr. Raut’s house, and incriminating documents, including instructional literature on the assembly of Improvised Explosive Devices, were found in Mr. Kalaskar’s house.”
The ATS searched a commercial space belonging to Mr. Raut in the same area and seized 12 crude bombs, two gelatin sticks, four electronic detonators, 22 non-electronic detonators, safety fuse wires, 150 gm of a white powder wrapped in a newspaper, two one-litre bottles labelled ‘poison’, 10 batteries, one six-volt battery, a cutter, a hacksaw blade, soldering equipment, three switches, two completed PCB circuits, one partially completed PCB circuit, six battery connectors, two battery containers, four relay switches, eight resistors, six transistors, lengths of wire, a multimeter, a pair of handgloves, adhesive solution and a partial hand-drawn diagram of a circuit on a sheet of paper.
Mr. Raut and Mr. Kalaskar’s interrogation led the police to Mr. Gondhalekar in Pune. He was brought to Mumbai, and the three were placed under arrest and charged under the Explosive Substances Act, the Explosives Act, the Indian Penal Code and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.
