A Pune court on Thursday extended the custody of one of the prime accused and sharpshooter in the Narendra Dabholkar’s murder case Sachin Andhure till September 1, after the  CBI told the court that it wanted to confront him with another accused Sharad Kalaskar and carry out a joint interrogation of both them.

The CBI produced Andhure before a Pune Magistrate’s court which extended Andhure’s custody in CBI for two more days to facilitate his joint interrogation with Kalaskar.

Andhure allegedly shot 69-year-old rationalist and anti-superstition activist Narendra Dabholkar from a point blank range, while the latter was taking a morning walk on the Omkareshwar bridge located in the heart of Pune, on August 20, 2013.

Andhure's arrest had come after one of the accused in a terror conspiracy case Sharad Kalaskar, a resident of Nalasopara near Mumbai revealed his name during the interrogation by the State ATS investigating a plot to engineer blasts in five cities of Maharashtra including Mumbai, Pune, Solapur and Satara. 

The investigations by the CBI have revealed that that it was Kalaskar who had accompanied Andhure in a motorcycle and that it was the latter who allegedly shot Dabholkar.

The CBI had recovered the incriminating “black-coloured country made pistol with magazine and three 7.65 mm live cartridges of KF-make", during a raid conducted on the Shrimanth Galli residence of Rohit Rajesh Rege, friend of Andhure’s brother-in-law Subham Surale,  in Aurangabad on August 21.

Meanwhile, the CBI is seeking the custody of three accused in the journalist Gauri lankesh case –Amol Kale (37), Amit Digvekar (38) and Rajesh Bangera (50) from the Katnataka’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) investigate their links with the Dabholkar murder case.      

While Kale is former Pune unit convenor of Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, an affiliate outfit of Sanathan Sanstha, Digvekar was a promter of Sanatan Sanstha’s publication the Sanatan Prabhat. Bangera allegedly trained Andhure and Kalaskar in handling the pistol.   

Armed with a warrant by the Pune court, the CBI had on Tuesday moved a Sessions court in Bengaluru seeking the custody of three accused in the Guari lakesh case.

The Bengaluru court asked the CBI to submit a fresh application in a prescribed format so as grant the custody of the three accused to the central investigating agency.

Informed official sources said that the CBI might produce the three accused in the Gauri lankesh murder case would be produced before a Pune court on Friday.     

In an application filed by it while seeking the extension of Andhure’s custody in the Dabholkar murder case, the CBI had said on August 26: “Some of the accused in the Gauri lankesh case are connected with Andhure and Dabholkar murder case. Hence, we need the extension of Andhuri’s custody”.

Among other things that the CBI had disclosed in its remand application that one of the arrested accused in the Gauri lankesh murder case, had handed over one 7.65 mm country made pistol and three bullets with magazine to Andhure. 

 “We are also in the process of taking the custody of one accused in the Gauri lankesh murder case which is being investigated by the Karnataka Special Investigation Team (SIT). The accused concerned who handed over the pistol used in the Gauri lankesh murder case is currently in the judicial custody in Bengaluru,” the CBI had told Pune court.

The State ATS sleuths suspect that the same pistol was used by the miscreants in killing both Dabholkar and Gauri lankesh.      

Gauri lankesh (55) was shot dead outside her Bengalur residence on September 5, 2017. She was the editor in lankesh Patrike, a Kannada weekly started by her late father P. lankesh. After lankesh’s death, Gauri ran her own weekly called Gauri lankesh Patrike.

In both the Dabholkar and Gauri lankesh murder, the role of right-wing activists, including those owing affiliation to the Sanatan Sanstha and other organisations has come to light during the investigations by the CBI. However, the CBI has so far not named any organisation (s) in its recent remand applications.

It may be recalled that the brutal gunning down of Dabholkar –who had long been crusading for the passage of anti-superstition and mblack magic bill in the Maharashtra legislature – had caused a major furore in the State. The Maharashtra government had faced criticism from various quarters for months on end.

With the state police having failed to make any headway in the investigations into the Dabholkar murder case, the Bombay High Court had transferred the case to the CBI on May 9, 2014, after overruling the objections raised by the Maharashtra government. The CBI had registered a case on June 2, 2014, on the high court’s orders.

On September 7 2016, the CBI filed a charge-sheet in the Dabholkar murder case before a First Class Judicial Magistrate in Pune. In the charge-sheet filed against Dr Virendrasinh Tawde, an activist of Sanatan Sanstha, the CBI had also named Sarang Akolkar and Vinay Pawar as absconding accused

Tawde, who was arrested from the Sanstha’s ashram at Panvel in Raigad district on June 10, 2016, has been charged under sections under 129 (b) and 302 (murder) of Indian Penal Code. Tawde is currently lodged at Yerwada Central Jail, Pune.