In the 2018 Nallasopara arms haul case, the special court has granted bail to three of the 14 accused –Anmol Kale, Sharad Kalaskar and Rishikesh Devdikar – on the grounds of six-year long incarceration.
The three were traced and arrested by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad on the basis of secret information that a group was active and likely to commit a terror act. The case came to light with the arrest of Kalaskar.
As per the prosecution’s case, the group had allegedly decided to oppose everyone and everything against the principles of Hindu religion. A part of the conspiracy was planning an attack at Sunburn Festival in Pune in December 2017 with crude and petrol bombs, firearms, and by pelting stones.
The prosecution had claimed that the ideology of the accused was responsible for murders of Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare, Gauri Lankesh, MM Kalburgi and an attempt on the life of KS Bhagwan.
The court observed that many of the accused have been granted bail. It noted “vague and uncertain” evidence against the accused and observed that the Pune festival concluded smoothly. “It simply means that the alleged criminal conspiracy never came to be executed,” the court said.
Besides, the court also ruled against the communal allegations and said “it is sort of exercising the constitutional right to profess their own religious beliefs and nothing more than that”.
The court said, “Nothing is placed on record whereby it can even remotely be inferred that, by any of the acts of any of the accused, unity, integrity, security and sovereignty of India was ever disturbed in any manner.”
“Some of the accused are facing trial for the murder of renowned personalities, as mentioned in the prosecution’s case, However, for that independent offence, involvement of the present accused in present offences, which are in fact never committed, cannot at all be connected, that too without any direct nexus,” the court noted.
