CBI arrests key suspect in murder of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar

The suspect arrested by CBI on Saturday is believed to be one of the shooters who had fired at rationalist Narendra Dabholkar (67) in Pune.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday said it had arrested a person from Aurangabad in Maharashtra who was one of the suspected gunmen involved in the August 2013 murder of Narendra Dabholkar, who fought against superstition and espoused rationalism.

Narendra Dabholkar was killed in Pune in August 2013. (HT File Photo)

Dabholkar was murdered in Pune by two bike-riding men who shot him from point-blank range. Following a demand by members of Dabholkar;s family, the case was handed over to the CBI for investigation.

“CBI has today (Saturday) arrested Sh. Sachin Prakasrao Andure of Aurangabad (Maharashtra) in Dabholkar Murder case. He was allegedly one of the shooters who fired at Dr.Narendra Dabholkar,” a CBI spokesman said.

Virendra Tawde, alleged to be a member of Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, considered to be a splinter group of the right-wing Sanatan Sanstha, has already been charged in the case by CBI. Tawde has been accused of involvement in the conspiracy to kill Dabholkar. Tawde is also an accused in the murder of communist leader Govind Pansare in 2015.

Investigators in the CBI have long suspected that the murders of Pansare and Dabholkar were connected with killing of another rationalist, MM Kalburgi, in Karnataka in 2015.

“There were a lot of similarities in the way all three were murdered,” an investigator who once probed the matter said on condition of anonymity.

During their probe into the September 2017 killing of journalist Gauri Lankesh in Bengaluru, the Karnataka police too found that the suspects in the case have links with the conspirators in the murders of Dabholkar, Karburgi and Pansare.