A local court in Kolhapur on Tuesday directed Sharad Kalaskar — named by Central Bureau of Investigation as one of the killers of rationalist Dr. Narendra Dabholkar — to be remanded in seven-day police custody till June 18 in connection with the 2015 murder of senior Communist leader and writer Govind Pansare.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing Pansare’s murder got Mr. Kalaskar’s custody from Mumbai unit of Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Tuesday and produced him before the Kolhapur court.
The SIT, through Mr. Kalaskar’s custody hopes to shed more light on the murder. The police said investigations had established that he manufactured firearms in Kolhapur and Belagavi and they needed to further probe his role in the meetings hatched to plot Pansare’s murder.
The Mumbai ATS had first arrested Mr. Kalaskar along with fringe right-wing activist Vaibhav Raut from Nallasopara in Mumbai on August 10 last year for allegedly planning disruptive activities in several parts across the State.
