Move to ban Sanatan Sanstha pending with Centre: ATS

A proposal was submitted to the central government in April last year to declare Hindu radical group Sanatan Sanstha an unlawful organisation,the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Friday revealed in an affidavit.

A proposal was submitted to the central government in April last year to declare Hindu radical group Sanatan Sanstha an unlawful organisation,the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Friday revealed in an affidavit.

The affidavit was filed in response to a plea filed in the Bombay High Court by a group of petitioners seeking a ban on the organisation. The petitioners claimed that the organisation uses a technique called Ericksonian hypnosis to lure people into joining it and carry out acts of violence.

The ATS noted that the authority to declare any organisation as unlawful rests with the central government by way of provisions of Section 3 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act,1967. However,it added that the government of Maharashtra submitted a proposal on April 11,2011 to the Union Home Minister to declare Sanatan Sanstha unlawful.

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It had made the proposal on the grounds that three cases had been registered against their activists regarding bomb blasts.

This government has reached the conclusion that the aforesaid organisation is liable to be banned with its affiliated sister concerns/trust, the report,which was signed by Umesh Chandra Sarangi,the former Additional Chief Secretary to the state home department,states.

The court has now asked the Sanatan Sanstha to file an affidavit in reply to the state governments report and has adjourned the case for two weeks.

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