Maharashtra ATS Recovers Coded Letters From Right-wing Terror Suspects

Mumbai: Maharashtra ATS investigating the case of explosives and firearms recovered from members of Hindu organisations, told the court that they have recovered several documents that have handwritten code language pointing towards a terror conspiracy.

The Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) has also said that they have recovered some vehicle number plates and firearms, which could have been used in some offence.

Vaibhav Raut, Sharad Kalaskar and Sudhanva Gondhlekar were produced before the special NIA court on Saturday as their eight day custody came to an end.

ATS has sought an extension of remand on grounds that it needs to confront the accused with the recovered articles and also decode several chits and letters written in code language recovered from the arrested individuals and also to find the mastermind and other people involved in the terror conspiracy.

ATS told the court that several raids have been conducted at various places and huge quantities of suspicious articles have been seized, including arms, ammunition, parts of firearms, explosives, vehicles, number plates, hard disks, pen drives, laptops and several handwritten chits and letters. However, the court was told that ATS could not get time to interrogate the accused as they were busy conducting raids and so more time was needed.

ATS has recovered CCTV footage of several locations around the place from where firearms and explosives were seized. The footage is being monitored to find evidence in the case.

Advocate Sanjeev Punalekar, who represented the accused, said that the ATS had not yet found any objective to press charges under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and so accused should not be given more than two days police custody.

He also argued that he was not allowed to meet the accused during interrogation, considering this, the court directed ATS to allow the advocate to meet the accused between 5.30pm to 6pm.

After the hearing, Punalekar accused Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis of conspiring and falsely implicating members of Hindu organisation for political gains.

Punalekar said, "This is a political move by the chief minister. If the ATS is not able to ascertain the terror objective, then the Home Ministry has failed. Chief Minister should resign." He also alleged the ATS of planting explosives and firearms.