The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday sought a 90-day extension for filing a chargesheet in the Narendra Dabholkar murder case, contending that it had invoked Section 15 (terrorist act) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) against the five of the accused.
The agency accordingly filed an application in a special court for filing the chargesheet under the UAPA Act against the accused — fringe right-wing sympathisers Sachin Andure, Sharad Kalaskar, Amol Kale, Rajesh Bangera and Amit Digwekar. The court is likely to hear the extension plea soon.
“As of now, we have not been served with any formal notice nor intimated by the CBI. We have only heard about the agency invoking the UAPA against the accused only from the media,” said defence counsel advocate Dharmraj Chandel, speaking to The Hindu on Tuesday. He remarked that the agency lacked material evidence to invoke Section 15 of the UAPA. “It is not as if the agency has come up with anything startlingly new in the past weeks to justify invoking the UAPA. It is clearly a delaying tactic on part of the CBI as it is aware that the material evidence gathered during the course of its investigation will not stand scrutiny in the court.”
The CBI sought the extension as the deadline for filing the chargesheet ends on November 18.
The agency has named Andure and Kalaskar as the two assailants who shot Dr. Dabholkar when the rationalist was out for a morning stroll on the Omkareshwar Bridge on August 20, 2013.
It was the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) that had first arrested Kalaskar, along with fringe rightwing activist Vaibhav Raut from Nallasopara in Mumbai and Sudhanwa Gondhalekar from Pune on August 10, for allegedly planning disruptive activities in several parts of the State.
During his interrogation by the ATS, Kalaskar had reportedly confessed confessed that he and Andure were the motorcycle-borne assailants who had gunned down Dr. Dabholkar. It was then that the CBI took custody of Kalaskar from the ATS and arrested Andure.
The agency has alleged that Kalaskar was an expert in arms manufacturing and was part of the wider conspiracy that links the murders of other rationalist-activists, Communist leader Govind Pansare and journalist Gauri Lankesh.
The agency has further said Kale, who is key accused in the Gauri Lankesh murder and alleged to be a former activist of the fringe rightwing Hindu Janjagruti Samiti (HJS), may have masterminded Dr. Dabholkar’s murder.
In June 2016, the CBI had made its first breakthrough in the case by arresting Virendra Tawde, an ENT specialist who was an activist of the radical Hindu Janajagruti Samiti [a splinter of the Goa-based Sanatan Sanstha] from Panvel near Mumbai.
In September 2016, the CBI charge sheeted Tawde, whom they named as the main mastermind in the case, while naming fringe rightwing activists Vinay Pawar and Akolkar as the two assailants.
