The Sanatan Sanstha and the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti on Saturday accused the CBI of making up stories against them without conducting proper investigation.
The claim comes close on the heels of reports of the Sanstha being named by the CBI in the murder of Bengaluru-based journalist Gauri Lankesh last year. The CBI had submitted a report to the Pune court, in which it reportedly stated that the Sanatan Sanstha had drawn up a hit-list of 37 people, which included Lankesh.
At a press conference in Mumbai on Saturday, Chetan Rajhans, national spokesperson of Sanstha said, “All 18 accused in the murder are not part of our organisation. Anti-Hindus have been targeting us for the past 10 years for the murder of Dr. Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare and M.M. Kalburgi without any evidence. This seems to be a repeat of the Malegaon conspiracy against us.”
He added, “If there is any evidence to prove us guilty, the investigating agency should make it public.” and we will accept it if proven guilty. However, we are sure the truth will come out and we will prove we are not guilty.”
Advocate Virendra Inchalkaranjikar, national president of Hindu Vidhidnya Parishad said the media should not “defame the organisation”, but wait for the court’s verdict.
Ramesh Shinde, national spokesperson, Hindu Janajagruti Samiti added, “Amol Kale, one of the accused in the Gauri Lankesh case, was not in contact with us for the last 10 years. He was never assigned any position in the organisation. Dr. Virendrasinh Tawade, too, was never assigned the position of vice-president. Positions that never existed have been created by the CBI in its charge sheet.”
Mr Shinde, however, accepted that Sameer Gaikwad, another accused in the Lankesh murder case, was part of their organisation. “But he is not guilty and has been granted bail,” he added.
Mr. Inchalkaranjikar referred to the recent arrested of Sachin Andure and Sharad Kalaskar, and the CBI’s claims that they were the shooters in the Dabholkar murder case.
“The CBI had named two others as shooters earlier. Now, they have named Andure and Kalaskar. Tomorrow, they will name someone else. I request the CBI to try and listen to the other side as well.”
