Centre rejects Maharashtra government’s plea to ban Abhinav Bharat

MUMBAI: The Union Home Ministry has turned down the Maharashtra government’s plea to ban Abhinav Bharat, the radical Hindutva outfit linked to saffron terror, on grounds of insufficient evidence of its “terror activities” over the last two-three years.
The MHA wrote to the state government about a month ago, rejecting its proposal for proscribing Abhinav Bharat, named in the 2006 Malegaon blasts charge sheet, under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
According to sources in the MHA, there wasn’t substantial material at hand to establish Abhinav Bharat’s “terror activities” over the last two-three years. It also cited the absence of clear information on the organizational structure of the Hindutva outfit, including its leaders and cadre still at large, or its offices and hideouts. The security agencies had no track of its continued terror funding either.
“To ensure that a ban under UAPA stands the court’s scrutiny and is also upheld by a UAPA review committee, we have to have exhaustive material documenting the terror activities of the outfit sought to be banned,” a home ministry official explained, adding that no such background was available for Abhinav Bharat.
The official argued that not only were its key members like Lt Col Shrikant Purohit behind bars, it now also seems Abhinav Bharat was only a ginger movement limited to Maharashtra, MP and Gujarat. The MHA felt that given its lack of pan-Indian influence and inconspicuous activity in recent years, there was no merit in banning the outfit. Muslim community leaders on Thursday criticised the home ministry’s refusal to ban the group and accused it of developing cold feet ahead of Lok Sabha polls.