Dabholkar murder: Court hears Punalekar’s bail plea

The bail argument in the court of additional sessions judge Ravindra Pande entered second day on Monday

The arguments in the court hearing the bail for advocate Sanjiv Punalekar, arrested in rationalist Narendra Dabholkar murder case, emphasised on the former’s status as a member of the legal fraternity.

Rationalist Narendra Dabholkar (HT PHOTO)

The bail argument in the court of additional sessions judge Ravindra Pande entered second day on Monday.

Advocate Subhash Jha, in the presence of advocate Virendra Ichalkaranjikar and a team of other lawyers, presented an argument in favour of granting bail to Punalekar. While Punalekar was absent in court, special public prosecutor (SPP) Prakash Suryavanshi and additional superintendent of police RK Singh of the Central bureau of investigation (CBI) were present.

“This kind of challenge thrown towards the fraternity (by the CBI) is unprecedented,” said Jha.

Punalekar, along with his aide Vikram Vinay Bhave, were arrested based on an alleged confessional statement by Sharad Kalaskar, who has been named in a CBI chargesheet as one of the two shooters who killed Dabholkar. Kalaskar had allegedly issued the statement to the Karnataka special investigation team (SIT) investigating journalist Gauri Lankesh’s murder.

While the defence maintained that Kalaskar approached Punalekar for legal counsel, SPP Suryavanshi told the court that the confessional statement claims that Punalekar called him. Written and recorded in Hindi, under the Karnataka Control of Organised Crime Act (KCOCA), the confession was made on October 12, 2018. It was passed on to the CBI team investigating the Dabholkar murder under the monitor of the Bombay High Court.

“He (Punalekar) advised him (Kalaskar) to destroy only one part of the weapon so the rest of the weapon could be used. He conspired to destroy the weapon. They may have planned this against so many people who are fighting against evil in the society,” said Suryavanshi. The SPP will continue his argument in the next hearing of the bail application.