A Pune court on Thursday extended the CBI custody of Virendrasinh Tawade, an accused in the Narendra Dabholkar murder case, till June 20, even as the investigators managed to gather a lot of evidence on the role played by Tawade and also established the identities of both the motorcycle-borne assailants involved in the incident.
Tawade, who was arrested from Panvel in Raigad district on June 10, was produced before Judicial Magistrate First Class
VB Gulve-Patil, who remanded him to further custody of the CBI till Monday.
The extension in Tawade’s custody came after CBI’s counsel BP Raju told the court that the former was not cooperating with the investigators.
A member of the Sanatan Sanstha offshoot Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS), Tawade is being investigated for his extensive role in the Dabholkar murder case. The CBI is also investigating his possible ties with CPI leader Govind Pansare and rationalist from Karnataka MM Kalburgi.
The investigations have revealed that Tawade was in regular touch through e-mails with other suspects in the Dabholkar murder case, including absconding suspect and Sanstha activist Sarang Akolkar, who allegedly had a role to play in both the Narendra Dabholkar murder case and the 2009 Goa blasts.
Notwithstanding the claim by the CBI’s lawyer in the court that Tawade was not co-operating with the investigators, sources in the CBI said that the agency had indeed managed to elicit quite a bit of information from the arrested accused during the latter’s custodial interrogation.
According to sources, the CBI sleuths nearly established that Tawade’s black motorcycle was used in the Dabholkar’s murder case. The investigators are also looking to trace the motorbike used in the incident.
The investigators are also understood to have established that two motorcycle-borne assailants were involved in the incident. However, the investigators are tight-lipped as to the evidence gathered by them and leads got by them in the case.
It may be recalled that 69-year-old Dabholkar was shot dead from a point blank range by two motorcycle-borne gunmen, aged between 25 and 30 years, while he was taking a morning walk on the Omkareshwar bridge located in the heart of Pune, on August 20, 2013.
Apart from Tawade, Akolkar is another key conspirator of Dabholkar’s murder. He has been on the run ever since his name cropped up during the NIA investigations in the Goa blast case.
The Interpol had issued a Red Corner Notice against Akolkar in the 2009 Goa blasts case. However, Akolkar has remained out of bounds for the investigating agencies.
The investigators have a strong reason to believe there is a common link among the murders of Dabholkar, Pansare and the 2009 Goa blasts case. This is given that the suspects behind all the three incidents like Tawade, Akolkar in the Dabholkar murder case, Sameer Gaikwad in the Pansare murder case and Akolkar, Rudra Patil and Praveen limkar — owe their allegiance to the Sanatan Sanstha.
Of them suspects, Tawade and Gaikwad are currently in the custody, while Akolkar, Rudra Patil and Praveen limkar have been absconding since the 2009 Goa blasts. Interestingly, the suspects behind the Goa blasts were reportedly in touch with Tawade before and after the incident.