Mumbai Court sends Rushikesh Devdikar to police custody in Nalasopara arms case

A Mumbai Sessions Court on Thursday sent Rushikesh Devdikar to police custody till 11 February in connection with Nalasopara arms case. Rushikesh is also accused in Gauri Lankesh murder case. In August 2018, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) had carried out raids in Nalasopara and Pune and arrested Vaibhav Raut, who ran a pro-cow protection outfit -- the Hindu Govansh Raksha Samiti, his associate Sharad Kalaskar, Sudhanwa Gondhalekar, Avinash Pawar and Pangalkar for allegedly stockpiling explosives and arms.

All five people were booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 for allegedly plotting blasts to disturb the communal harmony and having links with terrorist organisations. The ATS had claimed that the five accused had planned to trigger blasts at various places in Mumbai, Nalasopara, Pune, Satara, and Solapur.

Rushikesh was arrested in Gauri Lankesh murder case by Karnataka's Special Investigation Team (SIT) and was brought on transit remand by the Maharashtra ATS. He was produced before the Mumbai Sessions Court on Thursday in the Nalasopara arms case. Devdikar, 44, was arrested from Katras area in Jharkhand's Dhanbad district. He was primarily involved in the conspiracy to murder Lankesh. Originally from Aurangabad in Maharashtra, Devdikar was hiding in a house in Katras.

Lankesh, a senior journalist, was murdered at her residence in Bengaluru on September 5, 2017. (ANI)

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