NIA files chargesheet against 11 Goa bomb blast accused

Panaji, May 17 (ANI): The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday filed a chargesheet against 11 people in the 2009 Goa bomb blast case.

All the accused are associated with the Sanathan Sanstha.

Four of the accused– Dhananjay Ashtekar, Dilip Mangaonar, Vinayak Patil and Vinay Talekar - are already in police custody.

However, the Sanstha has not been named in the chargesheet.

The chargesheet runs into 4,000 pages.

The NIA has charged the accused with conspiring to execute serial bomb blasts in Madgaon on the eve of Diwali on October 16, 2009.

It’s still not clear what the exact role of the Sanstha was in executing the attack.

Two suspects-Malgonda Patil and Yogesh Naik — had died after being injured in the blast. Police had registered a case against them under sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and the Indian Penal Code for waging war against the nation.

Police suspected the Sanstha involvement after the motorcycle on which the bomb was planted was traced to one of its member.

Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) Vasco had last week granted bail to Patil and Talekar as the NIA had failed to file a chargesheet despite having the duo in custody for 180 days.

Two persons had died in a bomb explosion at Margao town while police had defused two IEDs at Sancoale, over 30 kilometres from Margao.

Commenting on the chargesheet, the Congress said, “Government will holistically look at the links of Abhinav Bharat, Ram Sena and its links with the RSS. There was a clear premeditated design to polarise the society, and it’s nexus with the RSS ahead of general elections.

However, the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS) has denied links with Goa blast accused.

RSS National Executive Committee member Ram Madhav said his organization does not have any links to the Sanathan Sanstha.

“Sanathan Sanstha is an independent body. We have no links with the Sanstha,” Mashav said. (ANI)