Journalism of Courage
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is probing the murder of Dr Narendra Dabholkar, filed a supplementary chargesheet on Wednesday against two of the accused in the case — advocate Sanjeev Punalekar and his aide Vikram Bhave — who were arrested in May this year for allegedly being part of the conspiracy to kill the 67-year-old anti-superstition activist in Pune.
Punalekar (53) was granted bail in July while Bhave (34) is still in judicial custody in Yerawada central jail.
Punalekar is known to be an office-bearer of a lawyers’ body named Hindu Vidhidnya Parishad. In its chargesheet, the CBI has said that Punalekar is also an active member of the Sanatan Sanstha, a radical outfit which all the other accused in the case are also part of.
Bhave is also a member of the Sanatan Sanstha and a convict in the 2008 Thane bomb blastscase. He was later granted bail in the blasts case by the Bombay High Court.
The supplementary chargesheet on Wednesday was filed by CBI’s Additional Superintendent of Police, S R Singh, who is the investigating officer of the case. It was filed in the Special UAPA Court of Additional Sessions Judge S R Navandar through Special Public Prosecutor Prakash Suryavanshi.
Along with allegedly being part of the overall conspiracy to murder Dabholkar, Punalekar has been accused by the CBI of advising Sharad Kalaskar, one of the two alleged shooters, on how to dismantle the firearm used in the murder. According to the agency, Kalaskar, who is also an accused in the 2017 murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh in Bengaluru, had followed the lawyer’s advice and dumped four firearms, including the one used to kill Lankesh, in Kharegaon Creek on Thane-Nashik Highway in July 2018.
The chargesheet has stated that the work to search for and recover these firearms from the creek has begun in October with the help of an UAE-based company.
Before his arrest, Punalekar had given legal representation to several Sanatan Sanstha members and other Hindutva activists accused in other cases. He had represented some of the accused in the Dabholkar murder case and also defended them in the media.
The CBI has claimed that Bhave played a key role in the conspiracy by helping in the reconnaissance of the murder site and other spots, and planning the escape route.
According to the chargesheet, Kalaskar told the agency that he and the other “shooter”, Sachin Andure, had come to Pune 15 days before the murder of Dabholkar to conduct a reconnaissance. Bhave had allegedly helped him and Andure conduct the reconnaissance, during which Bhave drove the motorcycle and he and Andure rode pillion, as per the chargesheet.
Bhave allegedly showed them the way from Shivajinagar bus stand to the place where the motorcycle would be parked, and then other spots such as Omkareshwar Bridge, Dabholkar’s residence and the escape route from the bridge after killing the activist. Bhave also showed the duo the spot at which they had to dump their motorcycle and firearms after fleeing from the murder site, Kalaskar told the CBI.
In February this year, the CBI had filed a supplementary chargesheet against Andure and Kalaskar, naming them as the shooters who had opened fire on Dabholkar on the morning of August 20, 2013. The total number of people arrested by the CBI in the murder case till now is eight.
CBI officials have said, during past hearings, that it was Kalaskar who first opened fire and shot at Dabholkar twice. Andure then shot at the activist twice — one bullet missed Dabholkar but the other hit him. The CBI has also arrested three others – Amol Kale, Amit Digwekar and Rajesh Bangera – who are also accused in the murder of Lankesh, who was murdered at her residence in September 2017. Kale, Digwekar and Bangera have not been chargesheeted yet.
