In a joint operation, the CBI and Maharashtra ATS on Tuesday raided premises in Aurangabad and seized among other things a firearm suspected to be used in the killing of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar in 2013, officials said. The seizure includes a countrymade 7.65-bore pistol and three cartridges, same as the one used in the Dabholkar murder, a sword and a ‘khukri’. The team did not identify the premises where the seizure was effected. The firearm will be sent for forensics analysis to see if it was the murder weapon in the Dabholkar case.
Following information provided by one of the prime accused, Sachin Prakashrao Andure, who was arrested on August 18 in connection with the killing, the CBI-Anti-Terrorism Squad team raided the residential premises of his cousin and a friend early Tuesday. Andure is allegedly one of the two persons riding a motorbike who shot dead Dabholkar near the Omkareshwar Temple close to his Pune residence on August 20, 2013. Andure was arrested after a tip-off by three persons already arrested in the Palghar arms haul case.
The Central Bureau of Investigation and ATS are now probing the links among various right-wing organisations suspected to be involved in the killing of Dabholkar and others like Govind Pansare, M.M. Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh, unravel their contacts elsewhere in the country, their other targets and the modus operandi. All major political parties have sought a ban on various Hindutva organisations like the Sanatan Sanstha following the developments in the wake of the August 10 arms haul in Palghar, around 90 km from Mumbai.