In a bid to trace commonalities in the murders of rationalist-thinker Govind Pansare and scholar M.M. Kalburgi, a team from the Karnataka police on Tuesday grilled Sanatan Sanstha activist Sameer Gaikwad for further clues.
According to sources within the SIT, Superintendent of Police of the Karnataka Central Investigation Department (CID), S. Rajappa, along with other officials interrogated Gaikwad in connection with Kalburgi murder in Dharwad, the circumstances of which were strikingly similar to those of . Narendra Dabholkar in Pune and Pansare in Kolhapur.
While the multiple investigating agencies probing the murders have speculated that the plot to murder Pansare may have been hatched in Karnataka, the Karnataka CID have conducted inquiries to establish the Sanstha’s role in Kalburgi’s killing.
Probe agencies have cast a wide net to nab the accused Sanatan activists in the 2009 Madgaon blast case, some of whose names are cropping up in Gaikwad's phone conversations tapped by the police. These include Rudra Patil, Pravin Limkar and Dilip Akolkar.
