CBI names Kalaskar as second shooter

The CBI has named Sharad Kalaskar as another “shooter” in the murder of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar. The federal investigating agency, while seeking an extension of Sachin Andure’s custody, one of the alleged shooters in the Dabholkar case, told a local court in Pune that Kalaskar is another shooter in the case.

Kalaskar was among five persons arrested by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) earlier this month in connection with the seizure of crude bombs and firearms from various parts of the state, including Nallasopara. “CBI is trying to trace the motorcycle used in the offence by accused Sachin Prakashrao Andure and Sharad Kalaskar, another shooter in this case,” CBI said in its remand report for the extension of Andure’s custody.

The court remanded Andure in CBI custody till August 30.

CBI officials said they will take custody of Kalaskar on Monday, the day when his ATS custody expires. “Kalaskar is currently in the custody of the ATS in the Nallasopara explosives seizure case. CBI will seek his custody in the Dabholkar case also, as he and Andure need to be interrogated together,” said special public prosecutor Vijaykumar Dhakane.

CBI also told the court that it will take custody of another person accused in the murder case of journalist Gauri Lankesh.

Dabholkar was shot dead by two motorbike-borne assailants at Pune’s Omkareshwar bridge on August 20, 2013. Lankesh was shot dead outside her home in Bengaluru on September 5, 2017.

Opposing the extension of Andure’s custody, defence counsel Prakash Salsingikar cited a charge sheet filed by CBI in 2016 in the Dabholkar murder case. In its charge sheet filed against Virendra Tawde, whom the agency has accused as co-conspirator in the Dabholkar case, CBI had named Sarang Akolkar and Vinay Pawar as the assailants who had fired bullets at Dabholkar. Salsingikar, while referring CBI’s 2016 charge sheet against Tawde, said, “Is the CBI ready to say on record that the earlier probe was wrong?”

55-year-old railway employee, Rakesh Kumar, who was posted at the New Delhi railway station, was killed allegedly after a truck hit his motorcycle in northwest Delhi’s Hakikat Nagar when he returning home after his duty, police officials said on Sunday. PTI

PUNE: NEWDELHI:A