In a senior journalist Gauri Lankesh murder case, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has taken its prime accused Amol Kale in custody in connection with Narendra Dabholkar’s murder case. The investigating agency suspects Amol Kale is also a mastermind of Dabholkar’s murder too.
Karnataka Police’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) arrested Gauri Lankesh murder accused Kale in May in connection and produced before Court in Maharashtra Pune district on Thursday. Gauri Lankesh was killed on September 5, last year, while Narendra Dabholkar was killed on August 20, 2013.
According to the official, during Kale’s interrogation, his alleged role in Dabholkar’s killing also came to light. Kale and Sachin Andure, the alleged main shooter in Dabholkar’s killing, had met in Maharashtra’s Aurangabad district and also stayed there in a lodge, he said.
During his stay in Aurangabad, Amol Kale handed over a pistol to Andure and it was passed to the latter’s brother-in-law Shubham Surale, the official quoted as saying. The pistol was found in August at Surale’s friend Rohit Rege’s residence in Aurangabad during raids by the CBI and the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS).
“The CBI wants to interrogate Kale to find out about his alleged role in the Dabholkar case and in this connection, the probe agency Wednesday took his custody from a prison in Bengaluru,” he said.
During the course of an investigation, the CBI is expected to confront Sharad Kalaskar, the other alleged shooter in the Dabholkar case, with Kale, and two others arrested in Lankesh’s murder case — Amit Digvekar and Rajesh Bangera, another official said.
The agency had claimed earlier that Digvekar and Bangera were also involved in the Dabholkar murder conspiracy. It had arrested the duo in the Dabholkar case last week. Sharad Kalaskar was arrested last month by the Maharashtra ATS in connection with a conspiracy to carry out blasts in Maharashtra. The ATS had claimed that during interrogation, Kalaskar revealed that he and Sachin Andre were involved in the Dabholkar murder, following which it tipped off the CBI which then arrested Andure.
Also read: Gauri Lankesh murder: Dangerous time to speak the truth in India