They live in the middle of nowhere, in Karajnagi, in Sangli, Maharashtra but police teams from at least two States, and two central agencies have come calling, here at Karajnagi, from 2009 onwards. But the one person they want to see has not traced his steps home, their boy Rudra, or now known to the investigating agencies, as Rudra “terror” Patil.
The Goa police, NIA, Delhi ATS, Karnataka police have all paid a visit, once immediately after the October 16, 2009 Margao blast six years ago and now after the murder of rationalist and leftist leader Govind Pansare, looking for Rudragonda and seeking information about the deceased Malgonda, who died when allegedly trying to detonate the explosives in Margao, behind Grace Church on the eve of Diwali in October 2009.
While the search is on and people in Karajnagi have several questions about the whereabouts of Rudra and his close links with Samir Gaikwad, there is no ambiguity about their links with the Sanatan. Both he and Gaikwad opened a mobile repair and electronics shop, Gurukrupa mobiles which was basically a front for spreading Sanatan education, and who knows even terror plotting (see box). Uncle Changond Patil said “We have no clue from where they got into Sanatan, the family does not support this ideology.”
“They were into Sanatan right from schooling and we had no clue,” he said.
Pointing to the NIA court acquittal of all accused in the Margao blast case, Rudra’s family says that it was only allegations and nothing has been proved against their sons Rudra or Malgonda, who died in the blast. All six accused in the 2009 Margao blast case were acquitted by a special court in Goa for want of more evidence.
The NIA had named 11 persons as accused in the sensational case, including deceased Malgonda Patil and Yogesh Naik.
Following the blast, the six accused – Vinay Talekar, Dhananjay Ashtekar, Prashant Ashtekar, Vinayak Patil, Prashant Juvekar and Dilip Mazgaonkar – were arrested by Goa crime branch.
Speaking to Herald, Rudra’s uncle Changond Patil says the family has no clue where Rudra is but questions why the police are hunting for him. When pointed out that he is involved in the Govind Pansare murder his uncle says, “Well we have no clue of that. Rudra hasn’t come here for the last six years.
They said Rudra and Malgonda were involved in Margao blast case but look what happened there is no evidence against anybody the court has acquitted them.” He adds, “I am sure he will be proved innocent in the murder case also.”
Asked to explain how they came to know about the Margao blast and the accusations, he said, “Well, a day after the Margao blast, around 5 am a police team from Goa came inquiring about Malgonda and after that we left to Goa to bring his body but we were denied this saying investigations are still on and after three four days they called back to take the body,” he said.
However, he added, about 10 days later they came looking for Rudra but he wasn’t there.
About Rudra, his uncle says he was a very intelligent and quiet child and never mixed with anyone, no fights, no controversies, good in studies and nobody from the family can believe that he can be involved in such things.
He said that whatever they knew was only through television as the village has no newspaper vendor and they have to go all the way to Jat which is about 15 kms.
But times have changed. The Patils of Karajnagi no longer have to travel to pick up newspapers for local news. THEY are the news
Direct Sanatan connect from this mobile shop at Sangli
After his schooling in Jat, Rudra Patil along with his friend Samir Gaekwad started a mobile repair shop in Jawahar Chowk at Sangli called Gurukrupa mobiles.
Locals say the two used to preach Sanatan ideologies from this shop and also sold Sanatan products like agarbattis, soaps, Sanatan patrika etc.
The owner of the Shop, Dr Sanjay Patil, states that he had no clue to their involvement in the terror plan or at least did not gauge from their “decent” behaviour.
“First Samir came to me asking for a shop saying he is unemployed and wants to do a mobile repair and recharge shop and I agreed to give him the shop on lease,” Dr Patil told Herald.
Dr Patil said that Samir and Rudra were extremely quiet people with not much contact with other shopkeepers in the vicinity except that many Sanatan workers used to visit the premises.
“They were well-behaved and I had no clue that anything like this would happen but I had asked them about the Sanatan workers coming here so they said they have been supporters of the organisation and nothing else,” he said.
He added, “One day the Delhi ATS came to inquire at this shop in 2010 after Rudra went missing and I asked Samir about it he admitted they had come but said he is not involved in anything.”
However, Dr Patil canceled the contract and removed him since he did not want any trouble.
