E-Paper
Murder trial: Dabholkar’s neighbour takes stand as first witness
The trial in the 2013 murder of Dr Narendra Dabholkar began in earnest as the first witness, his neighbour, in the case was cross examined on Friday
PUNE: The trial in the 2013 murder of Dr Narendra Dabholkar began in earnest as the first witness in the case was cross examined on Friday. An eerie silence befell the courtroom as an old identification card – a press accreditation card by Maharashtra government – and a diary of the slain rationalist was produced in court as part of evidence in his murder case on Friday.
Avinash Davalbhakt (54), a panch, and the first witness to be examined was the former neighbour of Dabholkar in Pune and lived next door to where Dabholkar used to live twice aweek. A salesman at an ayurvedic company, Davalbhakt was one of the two panch witnesses in the original FIR registered by the Pune police in 2013.
Davalbhakt lived in the adjacent flat in a building named Amey Apartment in 212, Shaniwar peth, where known politicians also reside. The flat was used by the late RG Jadhav, a writer who worked with Dabholkar’s Sadhana Trust. The flat was registered as owned by Sadhana Trust and Dabholkar lived there for twice a week.
Additional Sessions Judge SR Navandar (special judge for UAPA cases) is hearing the case with five accused – Virendra Sinh Tawde, Sachin Andure, Sharad Kalaskar, Sanjeev Punalekar and Vikram Bhave – and special public prosecutor Prakash Suryavanshi, along with three defense lawyers including Advocate Virendra Ichalkaranjikar, Prakash Shalsingikar, and Suvarna Vast.
The special trial court has directed the prosecution to provide a copy of the CD containing video of the post-mortem procedure to the defense lawyers. The court also directed the SPP to provide copies of the x-ray plates in the case.
“The Mumbai Forensic science laboratory (FSL) does not have the technical know-how to make the copy of the CD. So it will be sent to the Central FSL in Delhi. The x-ray plates will be provided by Mumbai FSL on A4 size photopaper,” said SPP Suryavanshi.
In their cross-examination, Advocate Shalsingikar tried to discredit the panch witness by saying that he was a follower of a certain spiritual guru and his beliefs were not in line with what Dr Dabholkar preached.
Dr Narendra Dabholkar, an anti-superstition rationalist, was on a walk on the morning of August 20, 2013, near Omkareshwar bridge in Pune when two bike-borne men shot him. The investigation has since been take up by the Central bureau of investigation (CBI).
In an initial chargesheet filed by CBI, Sarang Akolkar and Vinay Pawar were identified as shooters. In the second chargesheet filed by the CBI, Andure and Kalaskar were identified as shooters.
In both the chargesheets, Tawade was found to be the main conspirator. Bhave was accused of helping the two shooters with the reccee, vehicle, and escape route. Punalekar was found to have advised one of the shooters to dispose of the weapon, after which Kalaskar allegedly threw parts of the weapons in the Thane creek. This information was provided by Kalaskar to the Karnataka police special investigation team (SIT) investigating the 2017 Gauri Lankesh murder in Bengaluru, Karnataka.
While Punalekar is facing sole charge of destruction of evidence, all others are facing charges for terrorism, murder, and criminal conspiracy as per the charges framed against them. All have pleaded not guilty.
Kalaskar and Andure have also been named in the 2017 murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh. Kalaskar was also found to have been involved in the August 2018 Nalasopara arms haul by Maharashtra Anti-terrorism squad. Bhave has been convicted in a bomb blast case for possession of explosives. The CBI has also alleged a larger conspiracy by the Sanatan Sanstha, to which all the present accused and their lawyer belong, to kill Dabholkar, Lankesh, and scholar MM Kalburgi in Dharwad, Karnataka in August 2015.
