Cong trains guns on RSS over Sangh-linked DRDO scientist espionage

The scientist was arrested by Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad earlier this month and a court had on Tuesday sent him to police custody till May 15

The Congress on Wednesday sought to put the RSS on its line of fire after a DRDO scientist, who is linked to the Sangh, was arrested on charges of spying for Pakistan after being honey trapped by an operative from the neighbouring country.

Pawan Khera, party’s Media Department Chairman, claimed arrested DRDO official Pradeep Kurulkar was an active RSS volunteer and it exposed the “anti-national face” of the Sangh fountainhead. He also claimed that it exposed the “charade of the RSS being called nationalistic organisation.”

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Kurulkar was arrested by Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad earlier this month and a court had on Tuesday sent him to police custody till May 15.

Addressing a press conference here, Khera claimed Kurulkar’s association with the RSS goes back generations and used to attend RSS shakha since five years, as revealed by him in an online interview. He said Kurulkar’s grandfather and father were also associated with the RSS.

Khera questioned the delay in arresting Kurulkar, who was allegedly chatting with the Pakistani operative through social media from October 2022, and said it took months for the Ministry of Home Affairs and intelligence agencies to arrest him.

He alleged that it was not the first time that people have come under the scanner for espionage after the Modi government came to power.

Khera asked whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi should be held responsible if Kurulkar had handed over sensitive information on the design of missiles developed by the country.

He alleged that the incident came to light basically because of infighting in the Sangh Parivar. Earlier, people like Kiran Patel and Sanjay Sherpuria were arrested on charges of impersonating as Modi’s close aides and officials. Sherpuria is said to be close to UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

“Why does Kiran Patel become an impersonator to the extent of the Indian Army in Jammu and Kashmir. Earlier also we had seen how Dhruv Saxena, a member of pro-Pak ISI and BJP IT cell in Madhya Pradesh, was caught in such an anti-national racket. Why did Modi invite the rogue Pakistan ISI to investigate the Pathankot Terror attack on March 27, 2016 ?” he asked.

Khera claimed, “140 crore Indians have now come to know that as much as RSS pretends to be an epitome of nationalism, it is not that much - in reality it has done more anti-national activities.”