Dabholkar murder trial: Defence lawyer claims procedure not followed for UAPA sanction

The CBI, however, has claimed that the sanction for UAPA was obtained through proper procedure.

Meanwhile, in his arguments, Ichalkaranjikar also claimed that the police officer who recorded the “extra judicial confession” of an accused saying he had shot Dabholkar was not examined before the court, because the confession is false.

Anti-superstition activist and founder of Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (MANS), Dr Dabholkar, was shot dead by two bike-borne assailants on Pune’s VR Shinde bridge on the morning of August 20 in 2013.

Trial of the murder case is on before the court of special judge PP Jadhav in Pune. Ichalkaranjikar will continue his final arguments before the court on March 12.

Meanwhile, the prosecution had concluded its final arguments on February 17. Special public prosecutor Prakash Suryawanshi had sought maximum punishment for the accused persons allegedly linked to the Sanatan Sanstha. On Friday, Suryawanshi submitted two citations to support the psychological analysis statement and extra judicial confession of an accused.

On February 22, advocate Omkar Neogi, who represents the family of Dr Dabholkar, submitted written notes of arguments to the court. A defence lawyer Prakash Salsingikar concluded his final arguments on Friday.

The accused who are being tried for murder include ENT surgeon Dr Virendrasinh Tawade who was chargesheeted in September 2016; the two alleged shooters Sachin Andure and Sharad Kalaskar who were chargesheeted in February 2019; a Mumbai-based senior lawyer Sanjeev Punalekar and his aide Vikram Bhave who were chargesheeted in November 2019.

According to CBI, which is probing the case, all the accused are allegedly linked to radical outfit Sanatan Sanstha. CBI has claimed that “long standing enmity/ hatred” between Dabholkar and his MANS with Sanatan Sanstha as the motive behind his murder.

On September 15 in 2022, a special court had framed charges in the murder case against four of the accused — Tawade, Andure, Kalaskar and Bhave — for murder, conspiracy to commit murder as per sections of the Indian Penal Code and UAPA pertaining to terrorist acts, and various provisions of the Arms Act for the use of firearms.

The court charged Punalekar (lawyer) with destruction of evidence in the case. While Tawade, Andure and Kalaskar are currently in prison, Bhave and Punalekar are out on bail.

The case

The Dabholkar murder case was initially probed by Pune City Police, who had arrested two illegal firearms dealers Manish Nagori and Vilas Khandelwal on June 20, 2014. They were, however, later released on bail by the court.

Later, CBI took over the probe in 2014 and never named them as accused in the Dabholkar murder case.

Also, CBI had, initially, in the charge sheet against Tawde, stated that Dabholkar was shot dead by Sanatan Sanstha seekers Vinay Pawar and Sarang Akolkar, both of whom are still not traceable. But, contradicting its own claim, CBI had later submitted to court that Andure and Kalaskar (who were arrested in August 2018) had shot Dabholkar dead.