Nationalist Congress Party leader and Rajya Sabha MP Husain Dalwai have urged Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, to impose a ban on the Hindu right-wing group Sanatan Sanstha.
The MP told ANI, “Sanatan Sanstha should be banned and cases should be filed against it. Those in the organization who are spreading terrorism must be put to jail. They are responsible for the murder of Narendra Dabholkar and Comrade Pansare. This is why I am urging Uddhav Thackeray to ban it.”
The saffron fringe group’s members were arrested for the murders of the activists Narendra Dabholka, and Govind Pansare. The special investigation team probing journalist Gauri Lankesh’s murder case had named the fringe group in its charge sheet.
The group was also accused of planting bombs outside theatres in Thane, Vashi, and Panvel in 2008.
Former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had stated that the proposal to ban the right-wing group was already pending before the central government. Dalwai has asked Thackeray to act upon it and speedily bring about the ban on the group.
Narendra Dabholkar was murdered during his morning walk near Omkareshwar Bridge in Pune in 2013, while Pansare and his wife were attacked by motorcycle-borne assailants while they were on their morning walk in Kolhapur in 2015. While the wife survived, Govind Pansare had succumbed to the injuries.
The police had found similar modus operandi of the assailants in both cases.
Dabholkar had urged the state to pass an anti-black-magic bill and was also instrumental towards banning superstitious religious practices which he had considered fraudulent in nature. Pansare was a rationalist and was also a left-wing politician belonging to the Communist Party of India (CPI).