Bengaluru: The Sanatan Sanstha, accused by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of involving in the murder of journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh, on Tuesday lashed out at the agency for targeting the religious organisation.
Addressing the media, the Sanstha termed the SIT move of submitting the additional chargesheet naming 18 accused, all members of Hindutva outfits, as an attempt to "dig out an old issue of Hindu terrorism and conspiracy to start Malegaon-2 after Malegaon-1 was proved to be a total failure".
Sanstha members criticised the SIT allegations that the accused were inspired by the “Kshatradharma Sadhana”, published by Sanatan Sanstha, and said that the script (chargesheet) appears to have been jointly written by Karnataka SIT and CBI in Maharashtra.
Sanstha spokesperson Chetan Rajhans said, “The Supreme Court, in the case of K.A. Abbas versus the Government of India, has clearly stated that motion picture or movie is a more effective medium as compared to print media. Still, no one has ever said that news channels that broadcast programmes like 'Crime Patrol' and films that depict scenes of rapes and murders lead to serious crimes. These are equated with 'freedom of expression'. To conclude that the holy text, published by Sanatan Sanstha 15 years ago that is out of print because of lack of demand, inspired the killings depicts how low investigating agencies can stoop to implicate Sanatan Sanstha."
He said, "The SIT unlawfully arrested innocent devout Hindus, persecuted them inhumanly and denied them judicial assistance. Similarly, false information was spread that the accused were in possession of a 'hitlist'. When nothing came out of it, one of the accused in the case, Parashuram Waghmore, was lured with '25 lakh to implicate Sanstha. After this conspiracy too did not succeed, they are spreading false information that the killing was committed after reading the holy text. I would like to ask, Sanstha has been publishing holy texts since 1995 and thousands of copies of 'Kshatradharma Sadhana' have been sold, but how many people killed how many individuals?”
Hindu Janajagruti Samiti national spokesman Ramesh Shinde said, “Amol Kale, whom the investigation agency claims the main accused in the Gauri case, was not in touch with the Samiti for the last 10 years. Even earlier, he never held any post in the Samiti. Similarly, even though Dr Virendrasinh Tawade did not participate in any of the activities of Samiti, he has been named its vice-president by the CBI in its chargesheet. Posts of office-bearers that are not even part of Samiti's structure are being created, and all are assumed to be activists of Samiti. Even when members of the Abid Pasha gang (a group of ruffians who had links with the Popular Front of India – PFI) were proved guilty of killing Hindu leaders with hard evidence, they were not slapped with KCOCA and the police helped them get bail. But the 16 Hindu activists arrested in the Gauri case, who do not have any criminal background, have been slapped with KCOCA, which is applicable to 'organised crimes'. This is extremely unfair and discriminatory,
and clearly shows that the Karnataka government is favouring the jihadis and is selectively subjecting the accused in the Gauri case to unfair treatment. This is part of the Congress conspiracy to malign the Hindu organisations.”
Hindu Vidhidnya Parishad vice-president Amrutesh N.P. said, “Sanstha propagates teachings of Bhagwad Gita, and always adheres to the Constitution while carrying out agitations. Still, a conspiracy is being hatched to defame Sanstha. Which book was the source of inspiration for people like Ajmal Kasab and Abid Pasha of Karnataka? The Naxals who have killed thousands of police and Army personnel have taken inspiration from some other book. Even Gauri Lankesh had a great faith in this book. What do investigating agencies have to say about this? We need to debate whether it is possible to get inspired by a book for killing someone. These so-called ‘intellectuals’ whose services have been hired by the Leftist mafia are trying to put a veil on this by spreading fake information that Hindu organisations, such as Sanatan Sanstha, RSS and Sriram Sene are extremist.
These thinkers are so cowardly that they are scared even while naming the books from which the jihadis and the Maoists draw inspiration. Neither the Sansta nor the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti has any role in these murders.”
