Who is mastermind behind Dabholkar murder? Supporters to protest from August 20

The MANS will conduct a social media campaign. Its members will also march in various cities to raise the demand. They plan to petition Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Devendra Fadnavis to intervene.

On the occasion of the sixth death anniversary of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar on August 20, his anti-superstition outfit, Maharashtra Andhashradha Nirmulan Samiti (MANS), will undertake a campaign, Jawab Do...Sutradhar Kaun, demanding the interrogation of Sanathan Sanstha founder Dr Jayant Athawale in Dabholkar’s murder. The MANS has alleged that so far only footsoldiers have been arrested in the case, while the masterminds remain free.

Dabholkar was a proponent of the anti-superstition law, which was opposed by the Sanathan Sanstha as being anti-Hindu. He was shot dead while going on a morning walk in Pune in 2013. (AP)

Avinash Patil, executive president, MANS, said, “Both the present and past governments don’t have the political will to confront the mastermind. The police and other investigating agencies are just arresting the footsoldiers, but the main mastermind has not been interrogated till date… The Sanathan Sanstha is an anti-national organisation, which does not believe in the Constitution of India and hence should be banned and its assets seized.”

The MANS will conduct a social media campaign. Its members will also march in various cities to raise the demand. They plan to petition Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Devendra Fadnavis to intervene.

The Sanathan Sanstha has refuted the allegations. “Our organisation is being defamed by the MANS, as we had opposed various proposals of the anti-superstition law. Our members are being made a scapegoat and arrested without any proof. We believe in the Constitution of India and have been cooperating with the investigating agencies for the past six years. However, what we are facing is harassment, without doing anything wrong,” said Sanathan Sanstha spokesperson Chetan Rajhans.

Dabholkar was a proponent of the anti-superstition law, which was opposed by the Sanathan Sanstha as being anti-Hindu. He was shot dead while going on a morning walk in Pune in 2013. Soon, other rationalists Govind Pansare and MM Kalburgi were also killed. In 2017, Gauri Lankesh, a rationalist writer, was shot dead outside her home in Bengaluru.

The investigating agencies have arrested members of both Sanathan Sanstha and its
sister outfit, Hindu Janjagruti Samiti.