NCP leader, rationalists on Hindu right-wing 'hit-list': ATS
Mumbai, Aug 31: In shocking revelations, an NCP leader and other leading rationalists were on the hit-list of the recently arrested Hindu right-wing activists in connection with the Palghar arms seizure case, the Maharashtra ATS told a Mumbai court on Friday.
They are -- Thane Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) legislator Jitendra Awhad, Pune-based rationalist Mukta Dabholkar, daughter of the slain anti-superstition campaigner Narendra Dabholkar, All India Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti President Shyam Manav and activist Ritu Raje.
The disclosure was made by the state Anti Terrorist Squad in the Sessions Court while seeking extension of remand of one of the accused arrested in the Palghar arms haul case, Avinash Pawar.
When the judge sought details of the investigations case diary on Pawar so far, the ATS made the revelations of the alleged hit-list prepared by the right-wing groups targeting these personalities.
Pawar, an employee of a government-owned shipping company, was nabbed in Mumbai on August 24. Prior to this, his associates Vaibhav Raut, Sharad Kalaskar, Sudhanva Gondhalekar, and Shrikant Pangarkar were arrested in different parts of the state.
The ATS further said Pawar, whose custody was finally extended till September 4, had carried out a recce of some of the targets, and had acquired training in weapons from an unnamed location outside the state.
On August 10, in a major swoop, the ATS had raided a bungalow and other premises in Nala Sopara, Palghar, around 90 km north of Mumbai, and unearthed a mini-factory manufacturing bombs, weapons and other materials meant for carrying out terror strikes in Mumbai, Pune, Solapur and Satara.
The five arrested persons were said to be linked to various Hindu right-wing groups like the Sanatan Sansthan, Shri Shivpratisthan Hindustan and Hindu Janjagruti Samiti, which have strongly denied the allegations.
The ATS is also probing the links of these arrested-accused with the killings of Dabholkar, Govind Pansare, M.M. Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
