Pune: Two alleged firearm dealers, who were arrested in connection with the rationalist Narendra Dabholkar murder case, on Tuesday told the court that they have been trapped in conspiracy by the police.
Manish Nagori and Vikas Khandelwal said that they had nothing to do with the murder of Dabholkar and their counsel alleged that Maharashtra ATS chief Rakesh Maria had offered Rs 25 lakh to the accused during their interrogation in order to obtain a confessional statement from them, even though Nagori and Khandelwal were not present in Pune on the day of crime.
Stating that investigating agencies had miserably failed to crack the case, the defence counsel alleged that Maharashtra home minister had asked police to solve the case “by hook or crook” in view of the mounting pressure from all quarters.
Nagori told the court they had been subjected to all kinds of probes, including lie detector test, but the investigators could not find anything to link them to the crime. “We have nothing to do with the Dabholkar case.
Our arrests have been made under political pressure. Let public know about the findings of narco test,” the accused told the court, adding while in jail they were subjected to torture and “third degree” treatment to extract confession.
