Narendra Dabholkar murder: Virendra Tawade in net, CBI steps up hunt for Sanstha veteran Sarang Akolkar

A graduate of electronics engineering from a private college in Pune, Akolkar has been missing since the Goa blast.

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According to CBI, while on the run, he shared crucial information through emails with Virendra Tawade, a member of Sanatan Sanstha and HJS arrested by the probe agency on June 10 in the Dabholkar murder case.

CBI sources said Tawade had been using as many as eight email accounts, of which two were used to contact Akolkar. CBI’s probe into the emails shows there were at least two email communications between Tawade and Akolkar in which they are said to have discussed Dabholkar, who was shot dead by two persons on the Omkareshwar bridge in Pune around 7.30 am on August 20, 2013.

Sarang Akolkar’s house in Pune which was searched by the CBI on June 1.

According to CBI sources, Tawade and Akolkar shared information through emails on procuring weapons, starting a weapon manufacturing unit and formation of a 15,000-strong army against anti-Hindu forces. The agency suspects the conspiracy to murder Dabholkar started in June 2013.

A sketch prepared by the Pune city police team probing the Dabholkar murder case initially had some similarities with Akolkar. Apparently, the probe team started looking for him, but there was no breakthrough.

Meanwhile, the CBI took over the probe in May 2014 and released sketches of two suspects. However, in October last year, the CBI counsel told the court that Akolkar’s photographs were shown to three witnesses, but they failed to identify Akolkar as the assailant.

Akolkar is among the 12 persons charged by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for the bomb blast in Goa’s Madgaon on October 16, 2009. As per police records, Sanatan Sanstha had opposed a “Narkasur” effigy competition in Madgaon. To oppose the competition, on the eve of Diwali on October 16, two Sanatan members, Malgonda Patil and Yogesh Naik, then residing in Goa, allegedly carried the bomb on their scooter for planting it near the competition spot. The duo died as the bomb went off prematurely.

Six Sanatan Sanstha members arrested by the NIA in connection with the case were acquitted by a Goa court in December 2013. Akolkar, Rudra Patil and Pravin Limkar of Sangli, and Jay Prakash alias Anna of Manglore are still absconding.

Akolkar lived at Chintamani Heights in Shaniwar Peth area of Pune city. He is also known to have stayed in Wadgaon Dhayari on Sinhagad Road.

Sleuths from different investigation agencies have been visiting his Shaniwar Peth residence from time to time. Summons issued by a special court in Goa were also pasted outside his residence. Later, Akolkar’s parents shifted from this place and started residing in a Sanatan Sanstha ashram. They were not available for comment.

Before he went missing, Akolkar worked as a full-time activist of the Sanatan Sanstha and was appointed the Pune district convener of its offshoot Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS).

He co-ordinated several campaigns launched by the HJS in Pune, including one in June 2009 against Oscar-winning movie Slumdog Millionaire, which claimed the film showed Hindus in a bad light.