New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday filed the second supplementary chargesheet in the 2013 murder of rationalist and anti-superstition activist Narendra Dabholkar against Sanatan Sanstha lawyer Sanjeev Punalekar and Vikram Bhave, a member of the Hindutva organisation.
Filing the chargesheet in Mumbai court, the central agency has alleged that both Punalekar and Bhave had helped with location scouting for Dabholkar's shooting. Officials here said that the lawyer and Sanstha member had helped in the recce of the place where the shooting took place.
Both of the accused were arrested by the CBI on May 25 and while Bhave is currently under judicial custody in Yerwada Jail, Punalekar was granted bail with strict directions to be available for the assistance in the probe at any time so required.
In fact, after Punalekar was arrested it was learnt that the shooter, Sharad Kalaskar had confessed to the CBI that he had met with the lawyer and Bhave at the former's offices. According to this confession, Punalekar and Bhave had instructed Kalaskar how to dispose of the weapon used in the murders of Dabholkar and journalist Gauri Lankesh. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), through its special public prosecutor, Prakash Suryawanshi, filed this supplementary charge sheet in the court of assistant sessions judge S R Navandar, presiding over a special UAPA court here.
Punalekar (53) is an office-bearer of the Hindu Vidhidnya Parishad, a lawyers' body and has represented several Sanatan Sanstha members accused in many other cases, including several accused in the Dabholkar case itself. Further, Bhave (34) is a Sanatan Sanstha member who has previously been convicted in the blast case of some theatres and auditoriums in Thane in 2008.