Maharashtra terror: Man arrested by anti-terror squad ran tech startup

Sudhanwa Gondhalekar arrested along with two others by Maharashtra anti-terror squad started a technology company in 2016

With the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) arresting three people for possession of bombs and arms, and planning to plot terror attacks across the state, Business Standard has learnt that one of the arrested men, Sudhanwa Gondhalekar, was running a technology startup. The Maharashtra ATS has alleged that Gondhalekar was part of Maratha protests mastermind Sambhaji Bhide’s Shiv Shivpratishthan Hindustan. Bhide is facing charges of inciting violence at Bhima Koregaon in January, which led to large-scale destruction of public property and created a law-and-order scare over caste violence between Dalits and Marathas.

Gondhalekar’s company, CAD Point, was incorporated in February 2016 and according to its regulatory filings, among other things, was involved in the business of “computer hardware and software, product development in enterprise computing, analytical solutions, robotics, artificial intelligence systems, data and information processing systems, CAD & CAM services, system implementation, data compilation and statistical analysis.” Gondhalekar owns a 50 per cent stake in the business, which is registered in the city of Satara – a two-hour drive from Pune where the other accused, Vaibhav Raut and Sharad Kalaskar, were arrested.

Gondhalekar’s business partner, Pratibha Umesh Mote, who holds the remaining 50 per cent in CAD Point told Business Standard over the phone from Satara, “I am shocked after hearing reports of his arrest. He was my husband’s student learning graphic designing from him. He was very sharp, intelligent and used to work very well. He was a very amicable person and was friendly with everyone. Since he worked hard and was creative, my husband took him as a business partner and started this business. He had a separate team and we were only in sporadic contact since 2016. He used to be usually unavailable for signing business documents.”

When asked about his association with Sambhaji Bhide’s organisation Mote said, “Yes he used to regularly attend meetings and events like the Durga Daud (Run) organized by Bhide’s organisation.”

Gondhalekar had started the business in 2016 with a paid-up capital of about Rs 100,000 and the company was registered at an address in Satara town’s Guruvar Peth locality, around two km from his residence. The company clocked almost Rs five million in revenue in the first year of its operations, primarily from rendering animation and graphic services to their clients. Almost half of all its operational expenses of Rs 4.4 million went towards paying salaries of their employees. Gondhalekar along with Mote took home a modest pay of half-a-million rupees between them in 2016-17. Gondhalekar’s business hadn’t taken any bank loans for funding its operations since incorporation. But it had unsecured loans of over Rs one million from unknown sources. All its machines, including high performance computer systems were also taken on rent from related companies to whom payments were made regularly. His company even made a small profit in the very first year of its operation.

The Maharashtra ATS has alleged that Gondhalekar could have floated an intermediary organisation that help procure arms and ammunition for Raut & Kalskar which were to be subsequently used in carrying out terror attacks across various locations in the state.