‘Andure was soft-spoken person with low profile’

Mumbai: With the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arresting Aurangabad-based salesman Sachin Andure for his alleged role in the murder of Pune-based rationalist Dr Narendra Dabholkar in 2013, his hometown friends are in a state of shock. Andure was known as a soft-spoken person who kept a low-profile, his friends recounted. His Facebook wall however suggests that he was a hardcore right-wing activist, with many of his posts supporting right-wing politics and leadership in the country.

The Asian Age spoke to two of Andure’s friends from his college days, who requested anonymity. One of his friends said, “This is a shock for us. We were together at Saraswati Bhuvan college in 2006-07. He was in the arts stream while I was in science. He was certainly not that kind of person who would be noticed by others for his extra-curricular activities. It seems that he has changed a lot.”

However, the same friend was quick to add that Andure’s Facebook posts were “aggressive” and he came across as a “champion of Hindu rights”. The friend said that Andure was connected to him through Facebook but they had not met in the recent past. “I used to read his FB posts, which were strictly on Hindutva posts,” he said.

Andure’s FB account was active till Saturday night but seems to have been deactivated since Saturday morning.