One more Sanatan Sanstha member held in arms haul case

Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, August 25

The Anti-Terror Squad of the Maharashtra police late Friday night arrested one more person in connection with the seizure of explosives earlier this month.

Police said the 30-year-old Avinash Pawar, who was employed with a ship building company, was arrested from suburban Ghatkopar. He was produced before a magistrate's court which remanded him to police custody till August 31.

Pawar is the fifth person to be arrested. Earlier this month, the ATS had recovered country-made guns and explosives from the home and office of Vaibhav Raut, a member of the Sanatan Sanstha based in Nalasopara outside the city.
Pawar has been charged with being part of a conspiracy to carry out terror activities in Maharashtra. He has also been charged under the Arms Act as well as Explosive Substances Act, among other laws, police said.
In their remand application before the magistrate, counsel for the ATS said Pawar needed to be questioned for his role in a plot to carry out terror attacks in Mumbai, Pune, Solapur and Satara.

Apart from Pawar and Raut, the ATS has arrested Sharad Kalaskar, Sudhnava Gondhalekar and former Shiv Sena corporator from Jalna Shrikant Pangarkar. All of them are members of Sanatan Sanstha and the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, according to police.