Sanathana Sanstha and other Hindu organisations hold press meet at Press club in Bangalore on Thursday about t... Read More

BENGALURU: The Sanatan Sanstha , a Goa-based Hindutva outfit, and its affiliate Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS) on Thursday condemned the murder of journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh and reiterated they had no role to play in the killing.

“Ideological differences between Hindu activists and Leftists cannot be denied. However, to conclude that Hindu activists have carried out the murder is unfair. Sanatan Sanstha has always fought ideology with ideology and taken the legal route in a democratic fashion, “Sanstha spokesperson Chetan Rajhans told reporters here. Rajhans said Sanstha is open to co-operating with the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the Gauri murder and investigators were welcome to visit their headquarters in Ponda. He said no SIT official has so far questioned anyone from Sanstha in connection with the murder.

Rajhans alleged that a few politicians, pseudo-liberals and journalists were accusing Hindutva organizations of being involved in Gauri murder without any evidence.

Sanjiv Panalekar, an advocate and national secretary of Hindu Vidhidyana Parishad, alleged that HJS leader Dr Veerendra Tawde and Sanstha activist Sameer Gaikwad were falsely implicated in the murders of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar and Communist leader Govind Pansare.

“In the Gauri case, the SIT needs to investigate Naxalism, family dispute, property dispute, local fights, and source of funding for her activities. That two bike-borne men pumped bullets from a 7.65mm pistol and killed her, should not be ground to conclude that the murders are committed by a certain group for ideological reasons. There are thousands of 7.65mm pistols sold illegally and hundreds of murders have been committed using them.All these murders are not connected to a single gang. Making an allegation to this effect against Sanstha and HJS is not fair, “Panalekar said.

“There were contradictory reports about the weapons used in the killings of Dabholkar, Pansare and MM Kalburgi.Initially, police said the weapons used to kill Dabholkar and Pansare were the same. Later, a report said a pistol used to kill Pansare and Kalburgi was the same, “Panalekar added.

Ready to cooperate with SIT sleuths

The Sanstha is a trust and there is no membership, but we have saadhaks (volunteers). Till now, SIT officials have not come to our premises. We welcome them as we need to share something with them. But we are aware SIT is collecting information about Sanstha with help from local police, who have called a few saadhaks and are questioning them about our organization, “Sanjiv Panalekar, an advocate and national secretary of Hindu Vidhidyana Parishad, said. SIT officials collected details about the press conference held by Sanstha and HJS on Thursday.

Read this story in Malayalam



In Video: No role in Gauri Lankesh murder, says Sanatan Sanstha