3 arrested by Maha ATS remanded to custody till Aug 18

The Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) after recovering explosives, 20 country-made bombs from the residence of Sanatan Sanstha worker Vaibhav Raut on Friday produced him before Additional session Judge Sameer Adkar along with two more accused — Sharad Kalaskar and Sudanva Godhalekar.

The judge remanded the three accused in ATS custody till August 18. The accused were reportedly arrested late on Thursday night in an ATS operation conducted in Bhandar Aali area of Nallasopara in neighbouring Palghar district. The accused were booked under provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the IPC.

The ATS had sought their custody for 15 days on the ground that it needed to ascertain why the bombs were made, where the accused persons got training to assemble the bombs, if they were associated with any terrorist group and from where they procured the material to assemble the bombs.

The ATS in its remand application said it had received secret information on Au- gust 7 that some persons planning to carry out terrorist activities in Pune and Mumbai. “Based on this information, searches were carried out at the shops and residences of the accused persons," ATS lawyer Sunil Gonsalves told the court.

The Public Prosecutor though did not disclose the remand copy to the defence advocate Sanjeev Punalekar stating it to be consisting of secret information in his submissions to the court.

Punalekar claimed that conducting a raid without a search warrant was illegal and violation of human rights. A teary-eyed Kalaskar complained to the court that police had beat them. The court said their medical reports didn’t reveal any external injuries.