Narendra Dabholkar murder: Examination of witnesses begins

During his visits to Pune, Dabholkar lived in an apartment in Shaniwar Peth, which was owned by the Sadhana Trust. Avinash Davalbhakta, the witness who deposed on Friday, was present along with one more witness, Krishna Khedekar, when police conducted a house search panchanama at Dabholkar’s residence on August 21, 2013, a day after the rationalist was shot dead.

Davalbhakta lived in a neighbouring flat between 2008 and 2014. At the time of Dabholkar’s murder, he was working in the marketing section of a pharmaceutical company.

During his chief examination by Special Public Prosecutor Prakash Suryawanshi of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Davalbhakta said some daily use items, books, a bag with some papers and a diary were seized by police, and he had signed the panchnama documents prepared by the police after inspection and seizures during the house search.

Davalbhakta was cross-examined by defence lawyers Prakash Salsingikar, Virendra Ichalkaranjikar and Suvarna Avhad. Salsingikar asked him about his activities between August 19 and August 21. Davalbhakta said he was on his way to Baroda from Pune for work on August 19, but had to return mid-way due to a death in his family. He came home around 8.30 am on August 20, and that’s when he got to know about the murder.

Davalbhakta said he was present for the house search panchanama from 11 am on August 21, but had also been to his flat a few times to settle down his guests.

Salsingikar claimed Davalbhakta was made to sign the panchanama papers prepared by the police and he was giving false statements. Davalbhakta denied the allegations.

The complainant in the case, Narayan Rangat, the then police sub-inspector at Vishrambag police station, will depose as a witness during the next hearing on November 13.

Meanwhile, the court passed an order stating that the CD of the postmortem and X-ray reports of the body be sent to the forensic laboratories in Delhi and Mumbai for making copies, which have to be given to the defence lawyers.

The CBI, which took over the probe from Pune City Police in 2014, has till now chargesheeted five accused, all of them allegedly linked to the radical outfit Sanatan Sanstha. These include ENT surgeon Dr Virendrasinh Tawade, two alleged assailants Sachin Andure and Sharad Kalaskar, Mumbai-based lawyer Sanjeev Punalekar and his aide Vikram Bhave, who have all been arrested between 2016 and 2019. Of these, Tawade, Andure and Kalaskar are currently in jail while Punalekar and Bhave are out on bail. All five accused appeared before the court on Friday.

Dr Dabholkar, a rationalist and founder of the anti-superstition organisation Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti , was shot dead by two assailants while he was on a morning walk on the VR Shinde Bridge in the heart of Pune, on August 20 in 2013. He was 67.

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On September 15, 2021, the special court had framed charges against four accused — Tawade, Andure, Kalaskar and Bhave — for murder, conspiracy to commit murder along with Section 16 of the UAPA pertaining to terrorist act and various provisions of the Arms Act for the use of firearms. The court had also charged Punalekar for destruction of evidence in the case. All five accused have pleaded not guilty.

The CBI, in its chargesheet against Tawade in September 2016, had named absconding Sanatan Sanstha members Sarang Akolkar and Vinay Pawar as the two assailants who had shot Dabholkar dead. But in August 2018, the agency had arrested Andure and Kalaskar and named them as shooters. Tawade was arrested earlier in connection with the murder of Communist leader Govind Pansare in Kolhapur on February 20, 2015.