The Sanathan Sanstha is once more in the news, and again for the wrong reasons. The Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) apparently cracked the Narendra Dabholkar murder and has identified the two shooters, both members of the Sanstha. While one of them has been identified as Sarang Akolkar, the name of the second shooter has not been disclosed by the CBI. Information revealed paints a picture of a tight-knit group of four members with doctor, Virendrasinh Tawade being the second in command. Tawade received orders from a handler and passed them on to Akolkar and the second shooter who carried out the dastardly act on 20 August, 2013. The case unraveled after the arrest of Tawade, who is a member of the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS), an off-shoot of the Sanstha. Investigators seized Tawade’s laptop and the series of emails threw light on the conspiracy.
The more disturbing information revealed through the probe pertains to the 2009 blasts in Margao. Phone records now show that the last call made by Malgonda Patil, who died in the Margao blast, was to Tawade. Similarly, Akolkar, who is also wanted in the Margao blast case and the Dabholkar shooting called Tawade before and after the blasts. Surprisingly, the National Investigating Agency (NIA) which probed the Margao blasts failed to conduct a background check of phone records and this crucial evidence slipped through the cracks. Had the NIA made Tawade an accused in the Margao blast case, scrutiny on him would have increased and Dabholkar might have been alive today. Three persons wanted in the Margao blast case “ Rudra Patil, Praveen Limkar and Sarang Akolkar are fugitives from the law and if they have remained safe till today it means they are being protected by members of the group.
Investigations conducted by the Karnataka CID show that the firearms used in the Dabholkar, Govind Pansare and M M Kalburgi shootings were similar. Ballistic analysis of the 11 empty cartridges recovered from the murder spots showed that the weapon used in all three murders was a country-made 7.65 mm pistol. This effectively links the group led by Tawade to the three murders.
The Sanastha and HJS which are linked to the murders have a large following in the State. The Sanstha has set up base in Ponda and enjoys the support of PWD Minister Sudin Dhavalikar. Photographs of Dabholkar and Pansare were on the website of the Sanstha with a red cross over them. The photos were removed after they were murdered. A Sanstha spokesperson later said that the red cross on the photos were to indicate that the organization did not agree with the views of the rationalists, but new evidence shows that there was more to it than just views.
The extremist group was active in Kolkapur, Sangli and Satara in Maharashtra. Tawade stayed in Kolhapur from 1995 to 2003 and regularly visited the place from Panvel. Apart from selecting Margao as the place to stage blasts, no evidence has yet been unearthed to link the local organization to the group. What has been established though, is that some members used the ashram at Ponda as a safe haven. The recent findings of the CBI and the arrest of Tawade has exposed an extremist wing within these two organisations. The question that remains to be answered is whether these two organisations, which are now under a cloud, abetted in the work of this group of murderers?
