Dabholkar murder: Cops quiz over 15 persons,no clue yet

Analysis of bulk phone call information over,police focus on specifics

After questioning over 15 persons who resembled the sketches of the suspects,investigators have failed to get any strong clues into the murder of anti-superstition activist Narendra Dabholkar who was allegedly shot dead on August 20.

According to the police,two unidentified persons on a motorcycle with registration number 7756 had murdered Dabholkar on Omkareshwar bridge around 7.15 am. Based on a description given by eyewitnesses,police initially prepared the sketch of suspect who was riding the motorcycle. Later,more eyewitnesses came forward and gave description of the pillion rider.

An officer said that police have so far questioned over 15 persons who resembled the sketches of the suspects.

A CCTV footage shows two motorcycle-borne youths,both wearing caps,at Omkareshwar bridge around 6.15 am on August 20. They park their bike and follow Dabholkar for some time before firing at him around 7.15 am. An eyewitness told police that after the murder,the assailants walked up to their motorcycle parked close to Shaniwar Peth police chowki.

The ballistic report received by the police reveals that the four cartridges,including two live cartridges,that the police had recovered from the crime scene were fired from the same firearm.

Meanwhile,the investigation teams had been probing nearly eight crore phone calls made from places which Dabholkar had visited a few days before his murder and also from the entry and exit points of Pune city.

A senior officer said these included dump data of the cellphone calls.

Story continues below this ad

We are now focusing on some specific information obtained from analysis of phone calls and other information, the officer added.

Police are also awaiting the report of the analysis of CCTV footages sent to UK. So far,the investigation teams have collected nearly 170 CCTV footages,of which over 120 have been analysed. Seven CCTV footages have captured the pictures of the assailants. However,due to poor quality of these videos,the police had sent these footages for analysis to a lab in UK.

Police suspect Dabholkars murder was carried out with proper planning and there could be a possibility of it being a contract killing. Besides questioning gangsters and historysheeters involved in firearm-related crimes and members of organisations such as Hindu outfits who had opposed Dabholkars anti-superstition movement,police are also probing other possibilities and have collected information of 18 programmes conducted by Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samini (MANS).

Police said these programmes were based on issues opposed by other outfits.

Click here to join Express Pune WhatsApp channel and get a curated list of our stories