The Central Bureau of Investigation on Saturday said that three accused in the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh in September 2017 were also involved in the conspiracy to kill anti-superstition activist Narendra Dabholkar. Dabholkar was murdered in Pune on August 20, 2013 while out for a morning walk.
The CBI told a local court in Pune that one of the accused in the Lankesh murder also imparted weapons training to Dabholkar’s killers, PTI reported. The agency produced Rajesh Bangera and Amit Digvekar, both accused in the Lankesh murder, in court on Saturday, along with Sachin Andure, one of the people who allegedly shot Dabholkar. Andure was arrested last month.
The court sent Digvekar and Bangera to CBI custody till September 10. Andure was remanded in police custody.
The CBI had on Friday taken custody of Bangera and Digvekar from the Karnataka Special Investigation Team inquiring into Lankesh’s murder. The agency was unable to take custody of Amol Kale, another accused in the Lankesh murder, due to “technicalities”.
“Bangera, a government employee and personal assistant to a Congress MLC in Karnataka, gave weapons training to both the shooters, Andure and Sharad Kalaskar, who killed Dr Dabholkar,” CBI lawyer Vijaykumar Dhakane told the court. He said the agency needs to find out where Bangera imparted the training, the source of the firearms and their “present whereabouts”.
Dhakane said Digvekar helped Andure conduct a recce of Dabholkar’s house and the routes he took when he left it. “Digvekar lived in a Goa-based Ashram for over 15 years and was associated with Vinod Tawde, one of the key conspirators in the case,” the CBI lawyer said. Defence lawyer Samir Patwardhan said that the CBI’s chargesheet against Tawde had claimed that two other persons had killed Dabholkar.
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