On Goa bomb trail,police find an MBA,engineering student

Investigators probing last months Goa blast say they have found that a MBA graduate,who worked with a five-star hotel and is now in their custody...

Investigators probing last months Goa blast say they have found that a MBA graduate,who worked with a five-star hotel and is now in their custody,planted the crude bomb that failed to go off in a town near Margao,while an engineering student arrested for his suspected links to the conspiracy allegedly built the circuits and timers for the bombs.

Two members of Hindu outfit Sanatan Sanstha,Malgounda Patil and Yogesh Naik,were killed when the bomb they were alleged to be carrying to plant at a Diwali celebration in Margao went off prematurely on the night of October 16. While two unexploded bombs were found from near the site of the blast in Margao,one more was found and defused at a Diwali event in Sancaole town,20 km from Margao.

Patil died within hours of the blast and Naik succumbed to injuries days later. Goa police had subsequently arrested 28-year-old Vinay Talekar,who had an MBA in Human Resources and was working with a local five-star hotel,and an accomplice Vinayak Patil. Investigations also led to the arrest of Dhananjay Ashtekar who was studying engineering in Kolhapur district in Maharashtra. Another man,Dilip Mangaonkar,has also been arrested and his role is being probed.

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Talekar and Vinayak Patil had planted the bomb in a truck carrying effigies of Narkasur in Sancaole at Malgounda Patils instance. Malgounda Patil and Naik had zeroed in on the target at both the spots and also provided them with explosives, claimed a senior officer. Talekar and Vinayak Patil were not members of Sanatan but friends of Malgounda Patil and Yogesh Naik,he added.

Originally from Karwar district in Karnataka,Talekar studied at Goa University while Vinayak Patil was a driver from Belgaum district in Karnataka. Ashtekar was from Khed in Ratnagiri and was a fourth year electronics engineering student at the DKTE Societys Textile and Engineering Institute in Ichalkaranji in Kolhapur,police said.

Ashtekar was a Sanatan member like his father and brother,who graduated from the same college last year. His friends told The Indian Express that Ashtekar was apparently deeply involved in Sanatan activities and seemed to be disturbed by the communal riots in Miraj and Ichalkaranji during the Ganesh festival in September. He is believed to have met Malgounda Patil four days after curfew was lifted in Ichalkaranji,police said.

According to Ashtekars friends,who requested anonymity due to a gag order by the college,he was an average student whose room allegedly was full of electronic items including batteries,circuits and he was always glued to his personal computer.

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He was so sharp that he could switch on and off the tube lights and fans in the room through his cellphone while he was sitting in college. His skills used to impress us, claimed a friend,adding that they were curious how he could afford the equipment while he was not too well off. Since he did not have an Internet connection,he used to collect information from the college and then read it at leisure on his computer. Days before the blast,he had also prepared a timer and bought batteries,which he flaunted. Interestingly,the timers and electronic circuits were missing from the room after the blasts, the friend alleged.

Ashtekars family could not be reached for comment and Atmaram Deshpande,Superintendent of Police (Special Branch),Goa police,said only Mangaonkar had so far got a lawyer to defend him.

Meanwhile,the panchayat of Bandiwade village has passed a resolution seeking a ban on Sanatan,which is headquartered in the nearby village of Ramnathi in Goas Ponda taluka. Bandiwade panchayats sarpanch Prabhakar Gawde said the panchayat had forwarded the resolution to the state government. Sanatan has said that it had nothing to do with the bomb blast and would co-operate in the probe.