Sanatan was under scanner

The state government concluded that the Hindu outfit, Sanatan Sanstha, should be banned after studying its activities in the past five years, home department sources said.

The state government concluded that the Hindu outfit, Sanatan Sanstha, should be banned after studying its activities in the past five years, home department sources said.

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Former Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare, who was killed in the November 26, 2008 terror attacks, had unearthed the organisation’s network and its modules spread across Maharashtra and in neighbouring states including Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. Following Karkare’s recommendation, the police had twice asked the home department to ban the outfit. The report was referred back to the police department because the government wanted a more comprehensive document on the outfit. People with links to the Sanatan Sanstha were named in the attacks on mosques in Parbhani, Jalna, Purna and Malegaon in Maharashtra, in Goa and on the Ajmer dargah in Rajasthan.

In 2008, the ATS arrested six people linked to the Sanstha for allegedly setting off a bomb at a Thane theatre where the controversial Marathi play, Aamhi Paachpute, was being staged.