Right-wing terror suspects targeted Padmaavat shows

Vaibhav Raut

After nearly 18 days of probe, ATS says it knows why the arrested terror suspects had bombs, guns and ammunition stacked up at their premises. Officers said the five had set off two bombs - at Belgaum's Prakash theatre on January 26 and Kalyan's Bhanu Sagar theatre on January 28 - to protest the screening of Padmaavat. They were also allegedly involved in planning a conspiracy to hurl bombs at Sunburn Festival in Pune in December 2016.

Special public prosecutor Sunil Gonsalves said the group had decided to target a western music festival, saying it was against Hindu culture.

While a majority of the arms and ammunition was recovered from Vaibhav Raut's home in Nalasopara

Courtroom drama
On Tuesday, the ATS produced Nalasopara residents Vaibhav Raut, 40, and Sharad Kalaskar, 25, Pune resident Sudhanva Gondhalkar, 39, and former Shiv Sena corporator Shrikant Pangarkar, 40, from Jalna before court, which sent them to police custody till September 3.

Gonsalves told the court that the accused had been trained to dismantle parts of weapons, and that the mastermind who taught them all this needed to be traced. Pangarkar is just one of the financiers, and the others had to be located, he added, making a case for their custody. ATS had also recovered vehicles - a bike from Kalaskar and an Innova car from Raut - and it needs to probe where these were going to be used. The agency also needs to take the accused to other states to widen the probe, currently focusing on Mumbai, Jalna and Aurangabad.

Some items were seized from the arrested former Shiv Sena corporator's farmhouse in Jalna. File Pics

In defence
Defence advocate Sanjeev Punalekar said no case had been made out and even after 18 days ATS didn't have a clue who the mastermind was, adding that there was no need for further police custody.

He also said the agency should say it clearly that Sunburn and Padmaavat were the targets, in which case UAPA does not apply as FIRs for both have already been filed.

Sifting through data
The ATS had earlier found a list from the suspects in a coded language; decoding it revealed names of human targets on the suspects' radar, said officers, adding, that was why they had stocked up on so much arms and ammunition.

The suspects had also conducted recces and had nine places for bomb-making and target practise-cum-training, of which two are in Maharashtra. The accused's interrogation has also revealed that the arms came from UP, MP and Karnataka, the agency said, adding that the social media accounts of all the accused were being scanned, in addition to going through the contents of the pen drives, CPUs, CDs and laptops seized. "A total of 10 TB of data was with the ATS, which is being analysed by the FSL," Gonsalves said.

CBI jumps in
The CBI has sought Kalaskar's custody for interrogation in the Narendra Dabholkar murder case. Its officers believe Sachin Andhure and Kalaskar shot Dabholkar, saying they need to confront the two. The court has kept the matter for hearing on Wednesday.

Also Read: Ghatkopar resident held in right wing terror case, neighbours say he is innocent

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