Maharashtra ATS nabs Hindu Janjagran Samiti activist
Palghar/Mumbai, Aug 10 : The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has nabbed a right-wing activist of the Hindu Janjagran Samiti (HJS) and recovered some explosive materials from his home in Palghar early on Friday, an official said.
The activist has been identified as Vaibhav Raut. Earlier it was suspected that he was a Sanatan Sanstha activist, also a right-wing group.
The arrest followed an early morning raid in the Nala Sopara town. The ATS used a dog squad to swoop down on the Hindu group member.
The ATS has recovered some bomb-making material, including detonators, explosive powder and incriminating material during the raid at his home and shop in Bhandarali area of Nala Sopara.
The motives behind the explosives found with him are not clear and Raut has been taken from Palghar to Mumbai where he will be produced before a court later in the day.
Decrying the arrest of "a devout Hindu" as "Malegaon 2" the HJS has said Raut is an active Gau-Rakshak (Cow protector) of the Hindu Govansh Raksha Samiti.
"He used to participate in agitations and programmes for uniting Hindu organisations under the aegis of the HJS," said Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh HJS Organiser Sunil Ghanvat.
However, he had not taken part in any programmes since the past few months, the HJS chief added.
"The incidents of needless harassment of Hindu orgnisations' activists and implicating them in false cases are not new. It was amply proved through the Malegaon (2008 blasts) case and arrests of many innocent Sanatan Sanstha activists," Ghanvat said.
He was referring to the arrests of several leading Hindu functioneries, including Sadhvi Pragnya Singh Thakur and others, during the investigations into the Malegaon blasts in a Muslim locality killing seven and injuring over 80.
Earlier on Friday, Raut's lawyer Sanjeev Punhalekar had also informed the media that Raut was not a Sanatan Sanstha activist and his name was being deliberately linked to defame the organisation.
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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.
