Barely five days before Independence Day, the state ATS arrested three persons, including two from Nalasopara, on Friday for plotting bomb blasts to disturb communal harmony and having links with terrorist organisations. Twenty bombs and bomb-making material were recovered from a bungalow in the distant northern suburb.
Vaibhav Raut, 40, a gau rakshak with the Hindu Govansh Raksha Samiti, and his associate Sharad Kalaskar, 25, were detained in Nalasopara (West) early on Thursday. Sudhanav Ghondalekar, 39, who claims to be a businessman, was nabbed in Pune.
The Congress alleged Raut has been associated with the Sanatan Sanstha for long and shared the dais with Sanatan leaders, and called for the group to be declared a terrorist organisation.
The state junior home minister said it was too early to link Raut and the others to any organization as the ATS has not completed its probe, but they will be probed for links with the murders of Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare and M M Kalburgi. The Congress also alleged they were planning blasts during Bakr-Id to fan communal violence.
"We have booked all three accused for criminal conspiracy under the IPC, having association with a terrorist gang or organisation under UAPA, and other laws," said Atulchandra Kulkarni, state ATS chief. They were entrusted with the responsibility of taking care of the explosive materials, explained another ATS officer. They were produced before a court on Friday and were remanded in police custody till August 18.
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Around 4am on Thursday, a state ATS team arrived quietly at the three-storey bungalow of Raut at Bhandarally, Nalasopara (west). Raut was under watch for the last few months after his name cropped up while probing a case, said sources.
In the evening, ATS officers with forensic experts, bomb detection and disposal squad (BDDS) personnel and the dog squad raided the bungalow. They left on Friday morning with Raut and dozens of seized material.
"We got information that a group was planning destructive activity in several parts of the state. They wanted to carry out bomb blasts to disturb communal harmony," said an officer.
"We got a tip-off about a mobile phone SIM card and began probing it. When we reached the card user, we found it was being used by someone else while issued in another person's name. Several such cards were being used by other people. This led us to detect this case," he added.
Sunil Ghanvat, Maharashtra and Chattisgarh state organiser of the Hindu Janjagruti Samiti, said in a press statement that Raut is a "daring cow protector" and "used to participate in programmes and agitations organized through uniting Hindi organisations under the aegis of Hindu Janjagruti Samiti". But for a few months he had not taken part, and called the arrest harassment of activists of Hindu organisations.
As a cow vigilante, Raut used to often stop vehicles carrying cattle to the nearby Sopara village, which has a number of abattoirs. Locals said for the past few years, Raut had taken a staunch stand on Hindutva.
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Despite belonging to the meat-eating Bhandari community, he had turned vegetarian and used to preach to people to say no to meat. But they said they could not believe he was into making bombs. People not known to the villagers used to visit Raut's home but locals thought it could be part of his real estate business.
ATS sources said Raut has been a Sanstha sympathizer for the last six years. He used to participate in programmes organized by Hindu outfits, and follow Hindu organisations on social platforms like Facebook and Twitter. But he stopped 20 months ago. "We will scan his social media pages and accounts to find out about his activities. His phone has been seized and will be sent for cyber analysis," said the officer.
In court, special public prosecutor Sunil Gonsalves said secret information was received on August 7 that some suspected persons were conspiring to carry out terrorist activities at Pune, Satara, Solapur, Nalasopara and Mumbai. "We were provided mobile numbers of the suspected accused. We started inquiring based on this information and it was also revealed in the secret information that certain weapons arms and ammunitions are stored at a particular place at Nalasopara," said Gonsalves. He submitted that the ATS needed to find out where the accused were going to use the bomb, places from which the material to make the bombs were procured and where the accused trained. When asked by the judge, Kalaskar and Gondalkar complained they were beaten up by the police.