Dabholkar Murder case: CBI seeks custody of 3 accused from Karnataka SIT

New Delhi, Aug 28: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has sought the custody of three accused in connection with the murder of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar from the Karnataka SIT.

CBI had last week claimed that the murders of Bengaluru-based journalist Gauri Lankesh and Dabholkar were linked.

Dabholkar, a Pune-based anti-superstition activist, was shot dead while he was on morning walk in August, 2013. Lankesh was shot dead in front of her residence in Bengaluru in September, 2017.

The names of the three accused whose custody the CBI has sought is not clear, but one them could be Amol Kale who is in the custody of Karnataka SIT. According to reports, Amol Kale, one of the alleged masterminds of Gauri's murder, had allegedly ordered Sharad Kalaskar and Sachin Andure to shoot Dabholkar.

Special Public prosecutor Vijaykumar Dhakane had last week said that the CBI would also seek the custody of those arrested by the Karnataka SIT in the Lankesh murder case as some of them were "linked" to the Dabholkar case.

The CBI told the court that the agency would seek the custody of Sharad Kalaskar, another alleged shooter in the Dabholkar murder case. Kalaskar was among the five persons arrested by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) earlier in connection with the seizure of crude bombs and firearms from various parts of the state.

Dabholkar (67) was shot dead by two motorcycle-borne assailants on August 20, 2013, when he was on a morning walk near his home in Pune.