Son Hamid Dabholkar led a candle march on the eve of Narendra Dabholkar’s fifth death anniversary at Vitthal Ramji Shinde bridge in Pune on Friday. (Express photo/Pavan Khengre)
THE CBI arrested Sachin Andure after reconstructing the chain of events leading to the murder of Pune-based rationalist Narendra Dabholkar on Friday. Sources said the reconstruction matched Andure’s statement, in which he gave details of how Dabholkar was killed.
The CBI will soon seek custody of Sharad Kalaskar, who was arrested by the Maharashtra ATS on August 10 along with two others — Vaibhav Raut and Sudhanwa Gondhalekar — who allegedly planned to carry out terror attacks in five cities of Maharashtra. According to sources, Kalaskar and Andure carried out Dabholkar’s murder.
According to the sources, Kalaskar and Andure, both residents of Aurangabad, took a state transport bus to Pune on August 19, 2013. They got off the bus at Shivaji Nagar in Pune next morning. Apart from two pistols, they had the keys of a motorcycle, which was parked outside a mall near Omkareshwar bridge where Dabholkar was shot. Around 7 am, the two reached the mall, drove to the end of the Omkareshwar bridge and waited for Dabholkar.
“They had already done a recce of the area and were aware of the route Dabholkar took for his morning walk. When Dabholkar reached the bridge around 7.10 am, after confirming his identity with a passerby, they ran up to him and shot at him. While Kalaskar pumped two bullets, Andure fired one shot. The two then escaped on the motorcycle. They took a pre-decided route which was not under CCTV cover and discarded the motorcycle on the outskirts of Pune. The two then took another state transport bus to Aurangabad and were back home by 5 pm that evening,” said an official.
Read | Who was Narendra Dabholkar?
The official said, “On Friday, the CBI took Andure and reconstructed the events, starting from Shivaji Nagar, where they got off the bus and walked down to the mall from where they collected the motorcycle. Since the reconstruction matched his statement, he was placed under arrest.”
According to sources, around 10 days before the murder, Kalaskar and Andure had carried out reconnaissance.
Virendra Tawde, the alleged western commander of the Hindu Janjagruti Samiti, an offshoot of Sanatan Sanstha, is suspected to be the mastermind in the case. “Tawde had asked the two shooters to carry out the murder. Based on his order they first carried out the reconnaissance and later executed the murder,” alleged a senior official. “The shooters during the interrogation confessed to carrying out Tawde’s orders.”
Sources said the role of another person, arrested by the Karnataka SIT in connection with the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh, has also surfaced. “This person is from Pune. He planned the murder along with Tawde,” said a source. The CBI is likely to also seek his custody.
According to sources, the conspiracy to kill Dabholkar started in 2009.