A special court here finally commenced trial in the Narendra Dabholkar case on Friday, eight years after the eminent rationalist was shot dead with a 7.65 mm calibre country-made pistol by motorcycle-borne assailants while he was out on a morning stroll in Pune.
The trial began with the cross-examination of the first witness — a former neighbour of the slain rationalist — who lived in a flat adjacent to the one that was intermittently used by Dr. Dabholkar.
The former neighbour, a salesman with an ayurvedic company, was one of the two witnesses in the original FIR registered by the Pune police in the case in 2013.
He lived in a building in the city’s Shaniwar Peth area. The adjacent flat where Dr. Dabholkar lived for some days in a week was registered under the rationalist’s Sadhana Trust.
The special trial court also directed the prosecution to provide a copy of the CD containing the post-mortem procedure to the defense lawyers and asked the Special Public Prosecutor Prakash Suryavanshi to submit copies of the X-ray plates in the case.
The next proceeding is scheduled on November 13.
Earlier this month, the prosecution has submitted a list of 32 witnesses for examination during the trial before the court.
Eight persons have been arrested in connection with the murder. The accused include ENT specialist Dr. Virendrasinh Tawde (a member of the fringe Sanatan Sanstha, who has been referred by probe agencies as the ‘mastermind’); Sachin Andure and Sharad Kalaskar (who have been named by the CBI as the shooters); Sanatan Sanstha lawyer Sanjeev Punalekar and another Sanstha member Vikram Bhave.
While four among the accused are to be tried for murder, criminal conspiracy, and terrorism (under Section 16 of the UAPA pertaining to terrorist acts and various provisions of the Arms Act), advocate Punalekar, who is currently out on bail, will be tried for destruction of evidence.
Dr. Dabholkar was shot dead with a 7.65 mm calibre country-made pistol while out for his morning stroll on Pune’s Omkareshwar Bridge on August 20, 2013.
The CBI first arrested Tawde in 2016 and the chargesheet against him was filed in September 2016.
Sharad Kalaskar and Sachin Andure were arrested in August 2018 and the supplementary chargesheet against the duo was filed in February 2019. Lawyer Sanjeev Punalekar and Vikram Bhave were arrested in May 2019 in connection with the murder and were chargesheeted in November that year. However, both were later granted bail.
