Probe in last year's bomb blast in Margao town has revealed that four more suspects, hailing from neighbouring Karnataka and Maharashtra, were in know of the conspiracy to trigger explosion, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has told a court here.
In an affidavit filed before Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) at Margao, about 20 km from here, on February 25, NIA superintendent of police S Vijayan has mentioned about
these suspects along with four accused already arrested.
The affidavit was filed to seek police custody of the arrested accused, currently in judicial custody. The October 16 blast had killed two persons and police later recovered IEDs which were defused.
The NIA said these suspects were present during the testing of explosions, held two months before the actual blast, in the forests of Talaulim village, North Goa.
The affidavit names them as Prashant Juvekar (Ratnagiri), Sarang Kulkarni (Pune), Jayprakash alias Anna (Mangalore) and an unidentified person.
The arrested accused are Vinay Talekar, Vinayak Patil, Dilip Mangaonkar and Dhananjay Ashtekar.
According to the investigators, the two victims were ferrying an improvised explosive device (IED) in a scooter when it went off accidentally.
The duo - Malgonda Patil and Yogesh Naik - got seriously injured in the blast and later died in the hospital. They had been also booked under sections of the Indian Penal Code and Explosive Substances Act.
According to NIA, Ashtekar, a resident of Ratnagiri, had prepared 12 circuits, five of which he brought to Goa in August 2009.
"These circuits) were tested in the jungles of Talaulim village between August 24 and August 25, 2009," the agency has said. Ashtekar is an engineering student.
There was a conspiracy to trigger serial bomb blasts in Goa to strike terror and cause loss of human lives and property and disturb communal harmony, said NIA, which took charge of the probe from Goa Police's Special Investigation Team (SIT).
Police had said the arrested accused were closely linked to Sanatan Sanstha, a right wing Hindu organisation operating in Goa and Maharashtra. The outfit has denied any role in the blast.
