Sanatan Sanstha not named in chargesheet

The name of Sanatan Sanstha does not figure in chargesheets and remand applications, the right-wing organisation said on Monday, in the wake of the clamour demanding a ban on the Goa-based organisation.

"The Congress is demanding a ban, the Communists are demanding a ban, so are some so-called intellectuals and thinkers... they should know this," Sanatan Sanstha spokesperson Chetan Rajhans said.

The demand to ban the organisation and the arrest of its founder Dr Jayant Athawale has grown in the wake of the investigations by the CBI, the Maharashtra ATS and the Karnataka SIT vis-a-vis the murders of rationalist Dr Narendra Dabholkar, Communist leader Govind Pansare, Kannada writer Prof MM Kalburgi and journalist-writer Gauri Lankesh.

"The then Congress-NCP Democratic Front government sent a dossier to the Centre, but nothing happened. There was nothing against us," he said.

He said the Sanatan Sanstha and its "sadhaks" (seekers) have no role in the blasts in Thane and Panvel near Mumbai or the Margao explosion.

"In the last few weeks, nine persons were arrested by the CBI and the Maharashtra ATS. Of them, we have heard five names for the first time. The four others were from another organisation — they were not sadhaks," he said.

Besides, he pointed out that the CBI and Maharashtra ATS have not named the Sanatan Sanstha in anyway when they announced the arrests.

According to Rajhans, "certain parties and people" are trying to defame Sanatan Sanstha as they want Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to go.

"The Dabholkar family, the Pansare family and people of their ideology too are trying to defame us and target us as we had exposed them," he said.

In response to a question, he said the Sanatan Sanstha does not support violence in any form.