In a major breakthrough in the rationalist Narendra Dabholkar murder case, the CBI and Maharashtra’s Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Tuesday recovered 7.65 bore pistol — suspected to have been used in the heinous crime — from the Aurangabad residence of an acquaintance of the recently arrested sharpshooter Sachin Andhure and detained three persons in connection with the seizure.
Apart from 7.65 bore pistol, the CBI and State ATS officers also seized a sword and khukuri, in a joint search operation carried out at the residence of a friend of Andhure’s brother in-law at Aurangabad the the early hours of Tuesday.
The investigators also detained three persons, all common friends of both Andhure and his brother-in-law, for questioning in connection with the brutal murder of Dabholkar.
“The seized pistol is a country-made weapon with 7.65 bore. It is a similar 7.65 bore pistol was used in Dabholkar’s murder. We will send the weapon for ballistic analysis to confirm whether it was the same weapon that was used in the crime,” a CBI spokesperson said.
Andhure is said to be one of the two persons who shot 69-year-old rationalist and anti-superstition activist Narendra Dabholkar was shot dead 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.
The CBI officials arrested Andhure from Aurangabad on August 18 after the State ATS sleuths tipped them off the CBI about the revelations made by one of the three right wing activists arrested in connection with a terror conspiracy that they busted last week.
Following the raids at various places at Nalla Sophara in the neighbouring Thane district, the ATS had on August 9 arrested three right wing activists --Vaibhav Raut (40), Sharad Kalaskar (25) and Sudhnava Ghondhalekar ( 39)--- and claimed to have foiled the attempts to engineer terror attacks in Mumbai, Pune, Satara, Solapur and Nala Sopara.
During the raids, the investigators had seized a huge chunk of arms and ammunition and also unearthed a mini pistol assembling unit in the Nala Sopara residence of key accused Vaibhav Raut.
The interrogation of the accused in the terror conspiracy case by the ATS revealed that Andhure and the accused in the terror conspiracy case Sharad Kalaskar were friends. It was Kalaskar who allegedly spilled the beans of Andhure’s role in the Narendra Dabholkar’s murder.
The CBI, in close coordination with the Maharashtra ATS, is investigating the links among various right-wing organisations suspected to be involved in the killing of Dabholkar and others like Govind Pansare, M M Kalburgi and Gauri lankesh, unravel their contacts elsewhere in the country, their other targets and modus operandi.
It may be recalled that the brutal gunning down of Dabholkar –who had long been crusading for the passage of anti-superstition and black 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 chargesheet in the Dabholkar murder case before a First Class Judicial Magistrate in Pune.