Documents seized from an accused under arrest for the murder of social activist Govind Pansare indicate a link to the killings of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar and eminent scholar MM Kalburgi.
The Hindu reported that investigating agencies are working on several mobile numbers seen in diaries seized from Samir Gaikwad, a full-time member of the rightwing organisation Sanatan Sanstha.
“We have shared all information. Mr. Gaikwad had noted down many mobile numbers in his diaries, which we traced. Many of the numbers were already on our radar and we are working on it,” the report quoted an unnamed officer as saying.
The report further quoted the officer as saying that the mobile numbers were in serial order — indicating that they were purchased together — and that the users switched numbers often to mislead trackers on cell tower locations.
National Sahitya Akademi award winner Kalburgi was shot dead by two unidentified men outside his Dharwad house in August. Pansare, a CPI leader and anti-supersition activist in Maharashtra, died after he was shot at close range by two men on a bike in February. Dabholkar, another rationalist, was gunned down in Pune in 2013.
While the Pansare murder is being probed by the Maharashtra Police and the Kalburgi case by the Karnataka Police, the Dabholkar case has been handed over to the CBI.
Members of the Sanatan Sansthan, which is headquartered in Goa’s Ramnathi village, are accused in blast cases in Thane and Madgaon. There have been demands for its ban, but the BJP-ruled government in Goa recently said it was waiting for Maharashtra’s report before taking any action.
Sanatan Sanstha, which has a significant following in Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra, claims its aim is to present religion in a scientific manner. Its founder Jayant Balaji Athavale was reportedly a consultant clinical hypnotherapist before he took to spiritual practice.
