A special court on Friday adjourned till September 3 the hearing of arguments on the framing of charges in the Dr. Narendra Dabholkar murder after the defence counsel submitted that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had not furnished the accused with a copy of the 2017 report from the Gujarat Directorate of Forensic Science (DFS) which had analysed the firearm retrieved from one of the alleged shooters in the case.
Advocate Prakash Salsingikar, counsel for Sanatan Sanstha member Vikram Bhave, one of the five charged accused in the case, submitted an application before the court of Special UAPA Judge S.R. Navandar seeking the Gujarat DFS report, which the CBI had submitted to the Bombay High Court in January 2017.
Advocate Salsingikar said neither was a copy of the report given to the accused as per the Bombay High court directions nor was it submitted by the agency to the special court, adding that it was vital for the defence to know whether the CBI was relying on it to frame charges against the accused.
“We brought it to the court’s notice that the Bombay High Court’s order of January 20, 2017 pertaining to the Gujarat DFS’ report and submitted that the CBI must clarify its position on whether or not it was relying on this report. It is important for us to prepare the defence. It must be noted that the CBI itself had earlier pointed to contradictions between the ballistic report from the Gujarat DFS and that received form the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) in Kalina, Mumbai,” said advocate Salsingikar told The Hindu.
Judge S.R. Navandar asked CBI’s counsel Prakash Suryawanshi about the report, to which the latter said he would consult the investigating officer and make a submission.
In January last year, the court had rejected the bail plea of Bhave, a Sanatan Sanstha member who was arrested by the CBI in connection with the 2013 murder of the eminent rationalist. Bhave had been arrested by the agency along with lawyer Sanjeev Punalekar, a counsel for the Sanathan Sanstha, in May 2019 after the agency alleged that they had participated in the conspiracy to murder Dr. Dabholkar.
At the time, Judge Navandar had said Bhave could not be granted bail given his conviction in the 2008 Thane bomb blasts case and in view of his alleged role in Dabholkar’s murder.
Dr. Dabholkar was shot dead while out for his morning stroll on Pune’s Omkareshwar Bridge on August 20, 2013. On the occasion of the eight anniversary of his death today, activist of the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (MANS) have urged the State government and the probe agency to nab the masterminds behind the crime.
The CBI till date has arrested ENT practitioner Dr. Virendra Tawde in 2016, whom the agency referred as the ‘mastermind’ in the case; Sharad Kalaskar and Sachin Andure in August 2018 (named as the ‘sharpshooters’), and lawyer Sanjeev Punalekar and Vikram Bhave in May 2019 as suspects in the crime.
