2009 Goa blast: Parents unaware of suspect’s links

Sarang Akolkar, 30, one of the 11 co-accused Sanatan Sanstha activists in the Goa blast case of 2009, is an industrial electronics engineer from the Bharati Vidyapeeth College, Pune.

DNA (October 8) had reported that a two-member team from the Hyderabad-based National Investigation Agency (NIA) had come to Pune on Friday to issue a proclamation notice to the elusive Akolkar in the Goa bomb blast case.

Akolkar is co-accused in the bomb blast case that rocked Goa on October 16, 2009 killing two people. Two Sanatan activists, Malgonda Patil and Yogesh Naik, died in the blast while allegedly transporting the explosives in Madgaon in south Goa.

Akolkar belongs to a middle class family living in the Chintamani Apartments in Shaniwar Peth and is absconding. He had completed his engineering degree in 2005 and left for Bangalore for a job.

Following the Goa blast, a 3,000-page chargesheet filed before the Goa sessions judge, UV Bakre, had named Vinay Talekar, Vinayak Patil, Dhananjay Ashtekar and Dilip Mangaonkar (all now in jail); Malgonda Patil and Yogesh Naik (deceased); and Prashant Juvekar, Sarang Akolkar, Jayaprakash, alias Anna, Rudra Patil and Prashant Ashtekar (absconding).

Akolkar and the other accused face charges of conspiring and collecting arms for waging war against the state and mischief under the Indian Penal Code, 1860 and under relevant sections of the Explosive Substances Act, 1908 and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.

Akolkar used to live in his Shaniwar Peth home with his mother Kanchan, 54, and father Dilip, 59. The parents who had spoken to this correspondent in August this year had said that Akolkar was the main breadwinner of the family till he went away. They remember him as a brilliant and responsible son.

Parents said that Akolkar had scored 81% marks in his secondary school certificate (SSC) examination and had worked part-time in a courier company to complete his college education. They said that he had repaid the loan that family had taken to purchase a flat. He also sponsored his sister’s marriage, but was not present for the event.

While Akolkar’s parents confirmed that he was a member of Sanatan Sanstha, they never knew that he had participated in the bomb blast case. Presently, Akolkar’s married sister takes care of parents, while his mother is managing the house by sewing clothes. Akolkar’s father, who worked with a private engineering company, has suffered an attack of paralysis and is bedridden.

A NIA source told DNA that Akolkar was one of the most active members of the Hindu Jan Jagriti Sabha and had conducted several meetings in Pune. He was linked with Prashant Ashtekar, the prime accused in the case who was in Pune a few months before the blast.

Ashtekar had allegedly assembled 12 electronic detonators circuits during his stay in Pune and five of these 12 detonators were sent to Goa.

Akolkar’s parents said the NIA sleuths had been approaching them since 2010 and had announced a reward of Rs20,000 for their son’s arrest.