Sudhanwa Gondhalekar is a Hindu militant and member of the Hindutva group Shri Shivpratishthan Hindustan, a group founded by Hindu rightwing leader Sambhaji Bhide. Shri Shivpratishthan Hindustan shares close links with Sanatan Sanstha.

He was arrested along with four other Hindu militants linked to Sanatan Sanstha on August 10, 2018, by the Maharashtra’s Anti-Terrorism Squad from Mumbai’s Nalasopara with a huge cache of illegal firearms and crude bombs.

He knew about explosives and had trained the other two men on assembling them. He had also planned attacks on people and events they perceived as against Hindu dharma.

Gondhalekar also had close links to Sanatan Sanstha. His grandmother and daughters attained over “60 per cent spirituality” in the organization and were even felicitated for it. Spirituality levels comprise a major part of Sanatan Sanstha’s rituals for the attainment of sainthood.

He was also an avid reader of Sanatan Prabhat, a fortnightly published by Sanatan Sanstha.

Gondhalekar is also an accused in the brutal murder of journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh. He had conducted a recce of the area, supervised the operation, and later transported the murder weapon outside Karnataka after Lankesh’s assassination. The police probe has revealed that Sudhanwa allegedly kept the murder weapon at a safehouse on the night of the murder.