Kolhapur/Panaji, Sep 22 (TOI): Police probing the murder of rationalist and Left leader Govind Pansare suspect the role of Rudra Patil, a sadhak (seeker) of Ramnathi-headquartered right-wing organization Sanatan Sanstha.
Patil is an accused in the 2009 Margao bomb blast case in which two members of the organization were killed.
The SIT, Kolhapur, has launched a massive manhunt for Patil, who it suspects is the prime accused in the Pansare murder case.
Police sources said that call detail reports show that the Sanstha's other sadhak, Samir Gaikwad, arrested last week, had connections with people in the border areas of Maharashtra and Karnataka and was roaming in the Belagavi, Dharwad and Sankeshwar areas of Karnataka.
Based on these leads, police suspect that Gaikwad may have some connection with the murder of Kannada scholar M M Kalburgi as well and are investigating along these lines.
Police teams are also trying to establish Gaikwad's connection with Patil, who is wanted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for his alleged involvement in the blast in Margao on October 16, 2009, the eve of Diwali.
Two Sanatan Sanstha members, Malgonda Patil and Yogesh Naik, were killed in that blast, while allegedly transporting explosives in a scooter to the commercial capital. Malgonda was Gaikwad's friend and a native of Sangli district.
Patil is also a resident of Sangli district and has been absconding ever since the Margao blast. The NIA has issued a red corner notice against him.
An NIA team visited Kolhapur on Sunday and interrogated Gaikwad about Patil, whose name surfaced during Gaikwad's interrogation. The agency had questioned Gaikwad in 2010 too to find out the whereabouts of Patil and his connection with the blast.
"We are discussing both the cases and sharing information collected during the interrogation. There are some similarities in both the cases and we are trying to match the links that can help us crack both the cases and nab the suspects responsible for attacking Pansare and Kalburgi," said a police officer involved in the investigation of the Pansare murder case.
Referring to reports that senior journalist Nikhil Wagle had received threats from the Sanstha, its ashram in-charge Virendra Marathe, denied the same saying his organization does not believe in issuing threats. "We express opposition to wrong ideologies or wrong decisions either by publishing our views in our periodicals or by spiritual preaching," Marathe told TOI.