I have known Dr Virendra Tawde since 2001. I was part of the wider and loosely-organised community that worked for the cause of Hindutva but I was not formally associated with any particular organisation. In the past I worked with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, with the Bajrang Dal, and later the Sanatan Sanstha as it gained prominence. Tawde, when I met him, was a fully paid up member of the Sanatan Sanstha and was a practising doctor at Gangavesh in Kolhapur.At our meetings I often used to be aggressive and it’s something he liked. Together we used to disrupt baptism and conversion functions.Tawde’s wife Nidhi too used to attend our meetings. But around 2008 I noticed that the couple’s appearances at the meetings reduced substantially before disappearing entirely. Dr Tawde was soon replaced by a certain Madhukar Nazare. In 2010, I had certain fundamental differences with Bajrang Dal leaders and stopped working towards this cause. Around 2013 Tawde, out of the blue, turned up at the shop where I worked. He said the organisation (Sanatan Sanstha) has an assignment for me. He added that I had survived a heart attack the previous year as god intended me to continue to work for our religion. When I refused, he persisted and added that I wouldn’t have to interact with any of the leaders with whom I had fought. His words to me were: “You can work from where you are right now.”He revealed that he wanted me to make revolvers and to organise two people. He promised to pay the two men Rs 10 lakh each and the additional promise to look after their families should something happen to them. He then called out to another man waiting across the street at a toy shop and simply said this new man would ensure a revolver reaches me so I could figure out how it works and then get on with job of making them.Ten days after this meeting, I got another call from Dr Tawde and the other man came to show me two revolvers. Both seemed of good quality but I couldn’t play around with them as the staff at my shop was present. That man and I agreed to meet again when we had privacy, and a few days later Dr Tawde called and asked me to rush to the shop as that man was waiting for me there.I was left uneasy by Dr Tawde’s persistence. I feared that I was getting drawn into something messy so informed a policeman who was a friend of mine. I told him to come and arrest the man sitting at my shop saying he possessed two firearms. The policeman refused. I said I could call the man back after two days: Would he make the arrest then?After that I met the man and asked him to come back to the shop after two days but he did not turn up. Instead, about ten days later Dr Tawde himself arrived and said that we should shelve the revolver plan and asked if I could instead arrange accommodation for two men at my home. “Don’t let them stay at a hotel or a lodge. They would anyway only come to your place to sleep,” he said. I was told the two men had only been asked to monitor a particular person’s movements. And that it would not result in any problem for me. He did not say exactly who was to be spied upon and I acquiesced.Within a week two young men, both wearing caps and carrying rucksacks, fairly nondescript, arrived at my place. But by this time I had had second thoughts so I told them the arrangements had not been done and that they should come back in another two days. Neither man did.A fortnight later I got yet another call from Tawde who said the revolvers were ready but this time he needed my assistance to procure bullets. I said I would try and every few days he kept calling me to find out what had been done about the bullets.The last time I heard from Dr Tawde was a few days later when I was on my way to Goa for some work and he called to ask about the bullets. I fobbed him off, said I was headed way to Goa. He asked me if I drop him at Belgaum. I told him it would not be possible as I was already well on my way. This was the last I heard from him.On August 20, 2013, I heard about Dr Narendra Dabholkar being shot dead and my mind went over my entire interaction with Dr Tawde. He and others in his group knew of Dr Dabholkar’s exact whereabouts. I called my policeman friend and asked him to get in touch with any senior officer and to please fix an appointment for me. I also told him that I wanted him to share my apprehensions with his seniors. My friend facilitated my meeting with police inspector Shrikant Mohite. I narrated in great detail my interaction with Dr Tawde and his associates. A fortnight later inspector Mohite told me that an officer of the ATS would be coming to meet me. I met the ATS officer and spoke to him for over an hour. I also told him that I would be willing to testify in court if required. He said OK but then did nothing about it.A year and a half later, February 2015, Govind Pansare was shot dead. Within hours of the attack on Pansare, a police officer from Rajarampuri division of Kolhapur contacted me. Once again I told him everything. The next week I met the SP of Kolhapur and narrated everything again. I felt the SP was interrogating me. Next the additional SP Kolhapur S Chaitanya got in touch. But once again, nothing happened.Then finally four months ago on February 12 of this year, officers from the Central Bureau of Investigation came to meet me at my shop. I agreed to become a witness in the case. The CBI met me thrice more after this.I have since learnt the identity of the man who met me with the revolvers. He is Sarang Akolkar (who has been absconding since the 2009 blast in Goa). Of the two youngsters who I was supposed to arrange stay for, one was Vinay Pawar, who spoke to me while the other was Praveen Nimkar who I knew because we had in the past protested against Dabholkar and even manhandled him. I admit today that I was radicalised to disrupt Dr Dabholkar’s programs and protest against him but I never thought that it would go so far.