A special court in Pune remanded Advocate Sanjiv Punalekar back in CBI custody after he spent 13 days in judicial custody. Punalekar, arrested by the Central Bureau of investigation (CBI) in the murder of rationalist Dr Narendra Dabholkar, was remanded to three days in CBI custody, till June 23, on Thursday. The police custody was granted by the court of additional sessions judge Ravindra Pande.
Punalekar was in judicial custody from June 4 till now.
The custody was granted after the CBI cited new documentary evidence related to judges, lawyers, Nalasopara arms haul case, and a person identified only as ‘sadguru’. The CBI also mentioned an email written by Punalekar in 2012 to the slain rationalist who was shot dead by two motorbike-borne assailants around 7:30am on August 20, 2013 at Omkareshwar bridge in Pune.
The email was part of around 1 terabyte information recovered by CBI from the two laptops seized from Punalekar on May 27, two days after his arrest from Mumbai. However, defence advocate Virendra Ichalkaranjikar said, “The letter can be read even right now, I (Punalekar) have no objection to that. There is nothing incriminating in the letter.”
“There are so many documents on his laptop that we want to confront him with,” said special public prosecutor Prakash Suryavanshi representing the CBI. “There is a folder in his laptop named Dabholkar. We want to question him about the contents of that folder,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}“There are so many documents on his laptop that we want to confront him with,” said special public prosecutor Prakash Suryavanshi representing the CBI. “There is a folder in his laptop named Dabholkar. We want to question him about the contents of that folder,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}The CBI mentioned multiple emails and documents recovered from the two laptops. One of the emails refers to the Nalasopara arms haul case that is under investigation by the Maharashtra Anti-terrorism Squad (ATS).
“One incriminating letter from Sanjiv Punalekar mentioning about court proceedings of Nalasopara Explosive Case (of ATS, Maharashtra) passing some observations about the judge. It has mentioned about efforts being made to rope in 8 to 10 advocates for the work of Sanstha (Sanatan Sanstha). This letter also mentioned about ‘Sadguru’,” reads the CBI submission in court.
However, the defence advocate dismissed the findings saying that they were timed at the end of the hearing of Punalekar’s bail application to stall his release. “The investigation is not about the organisation, but murder. Under the garb of investigating the murder, fishing inquiries should not be permissible. This is done to conduct a media trial of the accused based on conjecture,” the defence stated.
Suryavanshi said, “We want to investigate who this sadguru is. Who is his (Punalekar) handler? Who does he report to?” The CBI suspects that the handler functions from Fonda area of Goa where the Sanatan Sanstha, of which Punalekar is a member, is headquartered.