Dabholkar murder probe inches forward

Sketches released by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Twenty one months after he was gunned down, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has published fresh sketches of the suspected assailants of Maharashtra’s most vocal rationalist and anti-superstition activist Narendra Dabholkar.

The sketches, claimed to be sharper than the ones earlier published by the Pune police, are expected to lend a fresh glimmer of hope to a labyrinthine investigation continually mired in controversy.

Hoping for breakthrough

Agency sources aver that the CBI’s sketches are much clearer than the ones that have been provided by the Pune police, implying that a breakthrough may finally be possible in the case. The city police had published its sketches in September 2013, within a month of Dr. Dabholkar’s killing.

“It [the CBI sketches] is certainly a welcome development. But while the sketches of the assailants are undeniably clearer, we are worried about the sagging pace of the CBI’s investigation now that so much time has elapsed,” said noted activist Hamid, son of Dabholkar.

The family is also worried about the State government’s attitude towards the case, they allege, has bordered on indifference ever since the CBI took over the investigation in May last.

A repeated request of the Dr. Dabholkar’s kin has been that the CBI ought to base its investigations in Pune where the murder occurred rather than operating from Mumbai.

Eyewitness accounts According to the CBI, their sketches have been composed on the basis of six eyewitness accounts. The 65-year-old Dr. Dabholkar was shot dead on August 20, 2013, by two motorcycle-borne youths when he was out for his morning stroll on the Omkareshwar Bridge in Pune.

Since then, the Pune police’s investigations, while proving inept, have bordered on the downright bizarre after an investigation shockingly revealed that the former Pune Police Commissioner Gulabrao Pol had held a séance to summon Dr. Dabholkar’s spirit in order to solve the case.