CID can't link MM Kalburgi, Narendra Dabholkar murders

Bengaluru: Though there are some strong similarities among the sensational murders of three rationalists, Dr Narendra Dabholkar on August 20, 2013 in Pune, CPI leader Govind Pansare on February 16, 2015 in Kolhapur and Prof M.M. Kalburgi on August 30, 2015 in Dharwad, the investigation in Kalburgi murder case has hit a wall because the Karnataka CID has not been able to establish the involvement of Dabholkar murder accused Virendra Tawde, who was arrested in June last year by the Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI) in the Kalburgi murder case, official sources told this newspaper.

“The trail of investigation dries after some similarities in the ballistic reports in the three cases. There is nothing so far to prove Tawde’s involvement in the Kalburgi case,” said the officer. The CBI had arrested Tawde after his name was linked to Sarang Akolkar the fugitive prime accused in the 2009 Madgaon blast case. In June 2016, the CBI had raided the house of Tawde in Panvel and Akolkar’s in Pune and allegedly retrieved lot of digital evidence in the form of SIM cards, mobile phones and mails linked to Dabholkar murder from their computers.

“When the investigating officer from the CID went to interrogate Tawde, who was then in the custody of SIT, Maharashtra, which is investigating Pansare murder case, regarding Kalburgi murder case, he reportedly told the officer that he had never heard of Kalburgi before and had no information regarding his murder. We are hoping for some breakthrough if Akolkar or his accomplice in Madgaon case, Vinay Pawar, is arrested,” the officer said. Kalburgi case is being investigated by the Karnataka CID.

Besides, the CBI is now verifying the claims made by the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), Kalina regarding the weapon that was used in the Dabholkar case after FSLs, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad countered Kalina FSL’s claim. The Bengaluru FSL report of 2015 stated that of the bullets and cartridges, which were recovered in the Pansare murder case, one matched the Kalburgi murder and another matched the Dabholkar killing. In its most startling verification, the FSL had stated that the bullets and cartridges in the Dabholkar case did not match the revolver recovered by the Maharashtra ATS. The Gujarat FSL had later confirmed the Bengaluru FSL report.

The CBI is now seized of the matter and has recorded the statements of some former officers of ATS, Maharashtra, who were investigating the Dabholkar case before it was handed over to the CBI in 2014 and FSL, Kalina’s ballistic experts, who had given the report. “The CBI is also examining the claim that the weapon used in the three cases was same. If Maharashtra ATS had seized the weapon used in Dabholkar murder, then how was it used in the other two murders,” the officer asked.