Marathi journalist Nikhil Wagle was supposed to be the next target and was offered protection
Mumbai/Kolhapur: The police arrested Samir Gaikwad last week, accused of participating in the murder of rationalist and Left leader, Govind Pansare. He was allegedly in the process of planning to assassinate senior Marathi journalist Nikhil Wagle. This came after the journalistic sodality raised a voice on the targeting of Shyamsundar Sonnar by the Sanatan Sanstha, another senior Marathi journalist working with the newspaper ‘Prahaar’.
Sonnar was attacked in an article shooting down his interpretation of Tukaram’s teachings and in turn, calling him anti-Hindu Although Sonnar filed a complaint and requested police cover as stated by a spokesperson of The Mumbai Press Club, Nikhil Wagle denied protection. He said, “Police did not give me any reason for the heightened threat perception. I turned down the offer of protection. I do not think I need.’
Rudra Patil, another man accused of being involved in the Pansare murder also played a role in the 2009 Madgaon blasts in Goa and is wanted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA). The police are attempting to discover the connections between Gaikwad and Patil. The senior investigative officer in the Pansare murder case had stated, “We found that after Pansare was attacked on February 16, Samir Gaikwad called his friend in Mumbai and said ‘we have done our work of finishing Pansare and the next target is Nikhil Wagle’.”
However, the government has decided to avoid placing a ban on Sanatan at this point in time, despite the mounting cases against its members and previous attempts by former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan to outlaw the right-wing organization—advice that was ignored by the Union ministry under Sushilkumar Shinde. Another recommendation had come from the then ATS chief Hemant Karkare following the arrests of three Sanatan workers in the 2008 Vashi and Thane blast cases. Prithviraj Chavan, now with the support of state assembly member Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil has once more demanded the delivery of a fresh proposal to the Prime Minister in order to ban the Sanatan Sanstha. Yet, an official has stated that any action can be consequent only to the discovery of evidence against the organization in the ongoing investigations.
On the other hand, Sanstha spokesperson defended,” The organization is purely spiritual and some progressive people are trying to defame it. We have supported and cooperated with the judiciary. If the arrested person is our worker, then this should be investigated and proper justice done. People are free to comment after that. But unfortunately, some secular organizations are trying to murder the organization before justice is done. This in itself is murder of democracy.”
Meanwhile, the Shiv Sena in its burning editorial in its magazine Saamna, has come out in support of the right-wing Sanstha, saying, ” The police should not turn Sanstha activists into scapegoats to please progressive hypocrites.” Critics say this is its way of targeting the BJP vote bank for the civic poles. Some Muslim leaders have called onto Sanstha as ‘ a threat to India’.
Source: The Times Of India
Tags: Sanatan worker
