Maharashtra ATS conducts search in Jalna farmhouse of NCP leader

Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) officers on Sunday reportedly conducted a search at the Jalna farmhouse of former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) corporator Kushal Singh Thakur. The searches were carried out after Shrikant Pangarkar, one of the arrested persons in the terror conspiracy case, claimed that he had learnt the art of assembling bombs and underwent arms training at the said farmhouse. Thakur is currently associated with Nationalist Congress Party.

Speaking to a media house, Thakur on Monday said, "An ATS officer had called me saying that they were in Revgaon farmhouse. The officer had asked me about Shrikant Pangarkar who along with a few people had stayed at my farm. I had no inkling about it."

The sources also claimed that the ATS team was assisted by forensic experts, bomb detection and disposal squad officials and officials from dog squad.

The police sources also claimed that Pangarkar too was along with the ATS team.

The ATS had did not disclose as to what all was seized during the searches.

On August 10, the ATS sleuths had arrested Nalasopara residents Vaibhav Raut, Sharad Kalaskar and Satara native Sudhanva Gondhalekar in a terror conspiracy case, wherein crude bombs and weapons were seized from their possession.

On August 19, Pangarkar was picked up from his Jalna residence after his name had cropped up during the interrogation of earlier three accused - Vaibhav Raut, Sharad Kalaskar and Sudhanwa Gondhalekar. A pen drive, hard disks and some incriminating documents were recovered from Pangarkar's residence in Jalna and ATS had claimed that Pangarkar was funding the other three accused to procure arms and ammunition.