Click here to join Express Pune WhatsApp channel and get a curated list of our stories
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
THE cross-examination of retired Superintendent of Police of the CBI, S R Singh, who was the investigation officer in the Dr Narendra Dabholkar murder case, continued in the trial court on Tuesday. Singh was questioned on various aspects related to CCTV footage from the time of the crime and about the probe by Pune City Police prior to the CBI taking it over.
Singh, who retired from the CBI in December 2022, is deposing as a witness before the trial court. His examination in chief by Special Public Prosecutor Prakash Suryawanshi had concluded in April. Singh’s cross-examination by defence lawyers Virendra Ichalkaranjikar, Prakash Salsingikar and Suvarna Avhad Vast, which was in part held in April, resumed on Monday in the court of Additional Sessions Judge P P Jadhav. At the time of his retirement, Singh handed over the charge of the case to the Deputy Superintendent of Special Crime Branch of the CBI, V K Meena, who is the Holding Investigating Officer and Pairavi (prosecution) officer for the case.
On Tuesday Salsingikar questioned Singh on available CCTV footage from the time of the crime. Singh told court — as has been reported in the past — the only CCTV footage from the time of the crime relevant to the case was of the two suspects riding on a bike as captured from the camera installed on the building of a bank. Because this footage was very blurry — which also has been brought out in the past — it was not relied upon, Singh said. Singh was also questioned on the various aspects of the investigation by the Pune City Police before the CBI took over the case in May 2014. Singh was also questioned on the probe conducted by the CBI into the links of Vaibhav Raut — an accused in 2018 Nallasopara arms haul case being probed by Maharashtra ATS — to the accused in the Dabholkar murder case.
Singh had told the court on Monday that Amol Kale, a Sanatan Sanstha member and engineering diploma holder from Chinchwad, who is a key accused in the murders of journalist Gauri Lankesh and Kannada Scholar Kalburgi, provided the weapon and motorcycle used in Dabholkar murder case.
Rationalist and anti-superstition activist Dr Dabholkar, was shot dead by two bike-borne assailants on the VR Shinde bridge in Pune by two persons on the morning of August 20 in 2013. The accused who are being tried for murder include ENT surgeon Dr Virendrasinh Tawade who was chargesheeted in September 2016, the two alleged assailants Sachin Andure and Sharad Kalaskar who were chargesheeted in February 2019, Mumbai-based lawyer Sanjeev Punalekar and his aide Vikram Bhave who were chargesheeted by in November 2019.
