Bengaluru: Two country made 7.6mm pistols, which were recovered from among the cache of illegal arms that was seized by the Maharashtra ATS from the alleged Hindutva brigade on August 10, may be the killer pistols that were used to silence Pune-based rationalist Prof Narendra Dabholkar and Bengaluru-based journalist activist Gauri Lankesh.
The pistols, according to sources, have been sent for ballistic examination to the Gujarat Forensic Science Laboratory. Investigation so far has exposed the hand of an unnamed militant right wing organisation with alleged links to Goa-based Sanatan Sanstha and its linked organisations in the two states behind the murders of four liberal thinkers - Dabholkar, Govind Pansare, M.M. Kalburgi and Gauri - in Maharashtra and Karnataka.
Sanstha has, however, denied its involvement in the cold blooded killings of the rationalists. The investigation in the sensational murder cases has picked up pace following a major breakthrough in the Gauri murder case by the Karnataka SIT. It is becoming clear now that the same module of Hindutva hardliners is reportedly behind the four murders.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Sunday told a court in Mumbai that Sachin Andure, who allegedly shot dead rationalist Prof Dabholkar on August 20, 2013, was reportedly in touch with the killers of Gauri and that Amol Kale, who is one of the key accused in the Gauri case; had allegedly handed over a country made 7.65mm pistol along with three bullets and a magazine to Andure. He in turn handed the pistol and ammunition to his relative Shubham Surale in Aurangabad. Surale further handed it over to his friend Rohit Rege. The CBI has recovered the pistol, bullets and magazine from Rege'a house in Aurangabad.
