New Delhi, June 07: One of the absconding accused in the Goa blast case has said he can’t be constantly on the run and would be surrendering before the court at the earliest.
Prashant Ashtekar, 23, also admitted to have played a role in removing the hard disk of the computer being used by his brother Dhananjay, which the police claim had vital information about the circuits being prepared for engineering last October’s Goa blast. Dhananjay was arrested in the case six months ago.
“I learnt about the charges slapped against me from newspapers. I can’t be evading the police for a long time. I would be surrendering before the court soon and am hopeful of getting discharged,” said Prashant.
On October 16, a bomb had gone off in a scooter in the commercial town of Margao in Goa, killing two Sanatan Sanstha activists Malgounda Patil and Yogesh Naik. Later, Vinayak Taklekar, an MBA who worked as an assistant HR manager with a seven-star hotel in Goa, Vinayak Patil, Dhananjay and Dilip Mangoankar were arrested. Prashant Ashtekar, Prashant Juvekar, Sarang Akolkar and Jaiprakash Putturu were declared wanted. Police believed the motive behind the blast was to spark communal violence in the state.
Prashant admitted that he got the hard disk from Dhananjay’s computer removed. Sources confirmed that the disk was missing and was suspected to contain important evidence like the circuit model used in the Goa blast.
“Since the computer belonged to me, I didn’t want myself to be named in the case, so I took away the hard disk,” Prashant said.
The siblings’ friends describe them both as deeply spiritual and good at studies. After Class XII in a local college in Chiplun in Ratnagiri district, both went to Ichalkaranji for engineering. Prashant stood eighth (2009 batch) in the Information Technology section at Shivaji University. Just before the blast in October last year, he had got a job in an IT firm in Borivali in Mumbai.
“Our batch was hit by recession and all major companies had stopped hiring. I got a job in an IT firm in Borivali, but they didn’t pay well. Dhananjay had been arrested by then, so I left the job to join another IT company in Sangli. But I have stopped reporting to work even there,” said Prashant.
The Ashtekars, who call themselves ‘Sanatan sadhaks’, insist their sons have been falsely implicated. “We only follow what is said in the Satsang,” says mother Kavita Ashtekar, a housewife. “We have taken pains to bring up our kids while teaching them engineering and are not involved in the case. It has ruined my sons’ careers and has a taken on toll on my husband.”
In a statement to the Goa Police after his arrest, Dhananjay had said their father introduced them to Sanatan Sanstha.
—-Agencies