Dabholkar murder trial: Search for murder weapon was unsuccessful, CBI tells court

Rationalist and anti-superstition activist Dabholkar was shot dead by two bike-borne assailants on the VR Shinde bridge in Pune on the morning of August 20, 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, and Mumbai-based lawyer Sanjeev Punalekar and his aide Vikram Bhave who were chargesheeted in November 2019.

During questioning by Salsinginkar on whether efforts to seize the vehicle and weapon used in the crime continued even after the filing of the last chargesheet in the case in November 2019, Singh said, “I led the effort to seize the weapon and vehicle used in the case even after November 2019 till my retirement. But I did not succeed.”

The statement by Singh holds significance in the light of news reports in March 2020 about the recovery of parts of a pistol from a creek off the Arabian Sea near Thane during a search for four weapons suspected to have been dismantled and dumped in July 2018 by alleged shooter Kalaskar. The CBI had said at the time that it had sent the recovered weapon, which was the rusted main body of a country-made pistol, for forensic and ballistic analysis.

Singh said he has now handed over charge of the case to Deputy SP (Special Crime Branch) of CBI, V K Meena.

When asked by the advocate whether Pune police, which probed the case before it was taken up by the CBI in 2014, conducted the probe thoroughly to search the vehicle, Singh replied, “I cannot comment.” He, however, told the court that as per the case documents received by him from the police, two possible partial registration numbers of the bike used by shooters, 7756 and 7256, were zeroed in on. He also told the court that the probe had narrowed down to a specific make and colour of the bike used by the assailants. Responding to another query, he said that data of suspected bikes based on two partial registration numbers was also prepared.

Answering a question from Salsingikar on whether he had gone through all CCTV footage collected by the police during their probe, Singh said he had not but the CBI officer who probed the case before him, D S Chauhan, might have. Singh, however, stated that Chauhan had conveyed to him that nothing relevant or incriminating was found in the footage.

The cross examination is slated to continue on Friday.