Pune Crime Files: When police were accused of using a planchette to solve Dabholkar’s murder case

A special court in Pune, on May 10, sentenced two men to life imprisonment and acquitted three others in the Dabholkar murder case, nearly 11 years after he was shot dead by two motorcycle-borne assailants on VR Shinde bridge in Pune on August 20 2013.

The planchette

Before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) took over Dabholkar murder case in June 2014, it was city police that initially investigated the case. In March 2014, the then-Pune police commissioner Gulabrao Pol was transferred, and within days, he took voluntary retirement from service.

However, in July 2014, a report in a news magazine accused him and others, including a former policeman-turned-godman Manish Thakur, of using a planchette to solve the Dabholkar murder case, news of which sent shock waves across the country. Using the ‘planchette’ involves sitting around a board with the alphabet and numbers written on it, and then inviting the dead to talk.

Pol, however, denied the allegations and initiated legal action against the news magazine editor and the journalist who worked on the report. The journalist then released videos supporting his allegations. In the videos, Pol and Thakur were purportedly seen interacting with the journalist. The godman allegedly spoke to Dabholkar’s spirit and narrated the matter to the journalist, as shown in the videos.

Following the controversy, RR Patil, then home minister of Maharashtra, directed the state police to investigate this report. Dr Dabholkar’s family also sought a proper investigation. The state government then handed over the inquiry to then-additional director general of Protection of Civil Rights (PCR) cell of the Maharashtra Police.

The PCR cell reportedly recorded statements from police officers concerned and others, including the journalist. The journalist said he had submitted the videos to the inquiry committee as evidence.

Also, Vikas Khandelwal, one of the two accused arrested by police in connection with the Dabholkar murder case, had told The Indian Express that the ‘godman’ (former cop), who was alleged to have conducted the séance, visited him when he was in police custody in November 2013 for another crime.

Khandelwal and an alleged firearms dealer Manish Nagori were formally arrested in the Dabholkar murder case by Pune police in January 2014. But the CBI did not name them in the Dabholkar murder case.

In September 2014, the PCR cell submitted the inquiry report, giving a clean chit to Pol, Thakur and others who were alleged to have used the planchette board.

Speaking to The Indian Express, minister Patil had said: “The report says there is no proof that any planchette was used in the Pune Police Commissioner’s office. I am yet to go into the other details of the report.”
The report, however, was not made available to the media and public.

The recent verdict

In its recent verdict, the special court in Pune convicted two of the arrested accused, Sachin Prakashrao Andure and Sharad Bhausaheb Kalaskar for firing bullets at Dabholkar. Citing a lack of evidence, the court acquitted the alleged mastermind, Dr Virendrasinh Tawade, lawyer Sanjiv Punalekar and activist Vikram Bhave, all linked to Sanatan Sanstha.

The court further stated that Pune police and the CBI had failed to unearth the masterminds. “They have to introspect whether it is their failure or deliberate inaction on their part due to influence by any person in power.”