Mumbai: The prosecution on Sunday claimed that Sanatan Sanstha lawyer Sanjiv Punalekar helped the accused persons in Narendra Dabholkar murder case to destroy the murder weapon.
Punalekar and his assistant, advocate Vikram Bhave, who were produced before a Pune court, were remanded in CBI custody till June 1.
Advocate Punalekar was representing some of the accused in the same case.
“During the investigation, it was revealed that in the month of June 2018, accused Sharad Kalaskar, visited the chamber of advocate Sanjiv Punale-kar at Fort, Mumbai where Vikram Bhave, assistant of Punalekar was also present. Sharad Kalaskar told Punalekar about his role in the murder of Dr Narendra Dabholkar. Punalekar told Kalaskar to destroy the fire arms used in the murder cases, including murder of Gauri Lankesh case,” read the CBI remand application.
The CBI further alleged that on July 23, 2018 Kalaskar dismantled four country made pistols and threw it from a bridge in Thane creek while on the way to Nalasopara while returning from Pune.
With these allegations the CBI sought custody of both Punalekar and Bhave saying the custodial interrogation of arrested accused is required for identifying his role in destruction of firearms used in the commission of offence and the recovery of the said dismantled fire arm.
The probe agency also said that custodial interrogation is required to unearth the entire conspiracy, which is in the exclusive knowledge of the accused and his involvement with other co-accused persons in this case having “national/international ramifications”.
Though the CBI had demanded his custody for fourteen days but the additional sessions judge S.N. Sonawane remanded him to the custody for seven days. The judge also allowed the request of accused that two lawyers be allowed to meet them daily to discuss the case.
Bhave, a member of the right wing outfit Sanatan Sanstha, was earlier convicted in the case related to a low-intensity blast at Gadkari Rangyatan auditorium in Thane.
The prosecution alleged before the court that Bhave had helped Kalaskar and Sachin Andure, the alleged shooters, to conduct a recce of the spot, and helped them escape after the crime.
He also took the motorcycle they had used during the crime and left it at an abandoned place.
Advocate Virendra Ichalkaranjikar, the accused’s lawyer, said the CBI has arrested Punalekar on the basis of Kalaskar’s statement to the Karnataka Police in October 2018, which Kalaskar had later retracted. The CBI arresting Punalekar on the basis of that statement after seven months was ‘illogical’.
Dabholkar, an anti-superstition activist, was shot dead while on morning walk in Pune on August 20, 2013.
