JOIN USGoa-based Sanatan Sanstha claimed on Saturday that the arrest and incarceration of Advocate Sanjiv Punalekar smacks of conspiracy.
Punalekar was arrested on Saturday by the CBI in connection with the murder of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar in 2013.
The Sanstha claims that the lawyer had exposed the “falsehood of saffron terrorism” in the Malegaon blast case, in which newly elected BJP MP Sadhvi Pragya had been arrested.
“It is very serious to arrest Sanjiv Punalekar who proved the falsehood of saffron terrorism behind Malegaon explosion case and filed several Public Interest Litigation. We feel that Punalekar who performs seva of society, the nation and dharma without any expectations is innocent,” the Sanstha’s national spokesperson Chetan Rajhans told reporters on Saturday.
One of the key accused in the Malegaon blast case, Sadhvi Pragya— currently on bail— won the Bhopal Lok Sabha seat on a BJP ticket on May 23.
The comment comes hours after Punalekar, who has served as a counsel for the Sanstha in several legal battles including the defamation cases filed by the Sanstha against media platforms, was arrested along with his assistant Vikram Bhave by CBI officials, who are probing Dabholkar’s murder.
Dabholkar, an outspoken rationalist who headed Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti was gunned down outside his residence in Pune on August 20, 2013.
One of the accused who has already been arrested in the Dabholkar case, Amol Kale, has been identified by the central agency as the mastermind of the murder of Bengaluru-based journalist Gauri Lankesh.
Sanatan Sanstha is headquartered in South Goa’s Ramnathi village located 35 km from Panaji.
Two members of the organisation died while ferrying explosives to a Diwali function in South Goa’s Margao town in 2008.