Hundreds of Hindus gather for ‘Ghanta-naad’ drive demanding release of advocate Sanjiv Punalekar
21 June 2019, Mumbai – Advocate Sanjiv Punalekar exposed failure of investigating agencies in solving murder cases of Dr. Dabholkar and Pansare by presenting in Court, the directionless manner in which investigations were conducted. Therefore, advocate Punalekar and Shri. Vikram Bhave, RTI-activist have been arrested out of spite. Such throttling of devout Hindu activists will never be tolerated by Hindus. Adv. Punalekar and Shri. Vikram Bhave should be immediately released with due respect from such unwarranted arrest. Agitations in the form of ringing of bells (Ghanta-naad) were staged for the above demand on 20th June at Azad Maidan by all pro-Hindu and patriotic organizations.
Hundreds of members of pro-Hindu organizations and their office bearers expressed displeasure over unjust arrest of advocate Punalekar; raising slogans for his release. Large number of women and young men participated in the agitations. Demonstrators were wearing masks of advocate Punalekar’s face; sending message of their strong support to him. Devout demonstrators were carrying display-boards with ‘Honour our Constitution, release Punalekar’, ‘Honour democracy, release Punalekar’ and strongly condemned unjust arrest by CBI.
Advocate Punalekar has been arrested for advising the accused in Dr. Dabholkar’s case to destroy the gun used by him. In fact, different accused were nabbed even earlier in Dr. Dabholkar’s case and information given by investigating agencies has been contradictory to each other. The pistol, which has been claimed by investigating agencies as used for Dr. Dabholkar’s murder, is not yet found. Arresting advocate of accused and his associate on such baseless points is a kind of throttling, was the opinion expressed by Supreme Court Advocate Bhardwaj Choudhari.
Hindu Janjagruti Samiti Spokeperson Dr. Uday Dhuri said while addressing the demonstrators, “Earlier Congress Government had tried to implicate devout Hindu activists in murder cases of members of progressive factions so as to brand Hindus as terrorists. Congress Government has committed sin of misleading investigations towards pro-Hindu organizations. The present pro-Hindu government should wash off this sin of Congress of targeting Hindus. Unjust arrest of advocate Punalekar and Shri. Vikram Bhave by CBI is a part of such misled investigations.
National President of Lashkar-E-Hind Shri. Ishwarprasad Khandelwal said while addressing demonstrators, “Advocate Punalekar has always cooperated with police during investigations. He has earlier requested the Court to conduct hearing of Dr. Dabholkar’s case on fast-track so as to clear the blot on devout Hindu activists about their involvement in murder case. Investigating agencies have, however, no concrete proof; therefore, there is delay in investigations. The Court has also admonished officers of investigating agencies on the same. Advocate Punalekar has in a way, brought forth such messy job of investigating agencies. We are sure that advocate Punalekar’s innocence would be proved in Court; but the injustice by investigating agencies is throttling democracy.
Representation demanding immediate release of advocate Punalekar and giving information on unjust action taken against him was submitted in ‘Mantralaya’ by devout Hindus.
