Dabholkar murder case: CBI asks HC for more time to recover murder weapons

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday sought more time from the Bombay high court (HC) to look for the weapons, which were allegedly used to murder

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday sought more time from the Bombay high court (HC) to look for the weapons, which were allegedly used to murder rationalist Narendra Dabholkar in 2013. Dabholkar was shot dead by two bike-borne men near his home in Pune, when he was returning from a morning walk on August 20, 2013.

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Additional solicitor general (ASG) Anil Singh informed the bench of justice SC Dharmadhikari and justice RI Chagla that foreign experts had started a search to recover the weapons, which were allegedly dumped in a creek in Thane after Dabholkar’s murder.

However, the experts had to conclude their search in 12 days, owing to the cyclonic conditions along the Mumbai coast. The ASG said that they will need at least 45 more days to look for the weapons.

Singh was responding to separate petitions filed by the families of Dabholkar and Govind Pansare, in which their families had raised concerns about the slow pace of the investigation by CBI. Pansare and his wife were shot at by two bike-borne in Kolhapur when they were out on a morning walk on February 16, 2015.

The CPI politburo member succumbed to his injuries four days later at a private hospital. His wife survived the attack. A special investigation team of the Maharashtra police is investigating his murder case.

The CBI, which is investigating Dabholkar’s murder since 2014, has named Sachin Andure and Sharad Kalaskar as the two shooters. The central agency hasd arrested Andure last year, after his name cropped up when the state anti-terrorism squad (ATS) was interrogating Kalaskar.

During his interrogation by the special investigation team (SIT) of Karnataka in the murder of author Gauri Lankesh, Kalaskar had allegedly recorded a confessional statement, saying that he had met advocate Sanjeev Punalekar in June last year, who advised him to throw the weapons under his possession in the Thane

creek. However, it is not clear whether the weapons referred to were the ones used in Dabholkar’s murder or whether Punalekar was certain about the fact that they were really the murder weapons.

CBI filed a supplementary chargesheet against Punalekar and his associate Vikram Bhave in an Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) court on Wednesday in the Dabholkar murder case.

The chargesheet mentions the role of Punalekar as a conspirator in the murder plan, while Bhave was the person who helped the two shooters gather information of the area where Dabholkar was killed.