‘Congress govt’s dossier on Sanatan not biased’

Mumbai: Former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan on Thursday clarified that the dossier sent to the Centre in 2012 by the then Congress-NCP state government was not in reaction to the Dabholkar murder case. Mr Chavan claimed it was based on an anti-terrorism squad (ATS) report on the activities of the Sanatan Sanstha.

Mr Chavan on Thursday issued a statement in the wake of news reports suggesting that the Congress-NCP state government did not seriously persuade the then Union government to ban the Sanatan Sanstha, whose role in the murder of rationalist Dr Narendra Dabholkar has come under the scanner after recent arrests. Mr Chavan said that he wanted to clarify that his party’s government had taken a consistent and impartial stand to ban the Sanatan Sanstha.

“The investigation into the Dabholkar murder case has picked up pace and investigation agencies have arrested people belonging to a particular ideology. But there has also been an attempt to create doubt over the Congress’s stand,” he said. Mr Chavan pointed out that two members of the Sanatan had been convicted in connection with a bomb blast in a Thane-based theatre in 2008. Thereafter, the state ATS had submitted a report on its activities. “Based on the ATS report, the state government had recommended the ban on the Sanstha. The state sent a 1,000-page detailed report to the government. This was before the Dabholkar murder case,” the former CM said.