Narendra Dabholkar murder case: Sharad Kalaskar's CBI custody extended till Sep 17

Pune, Sep 15: A Pune Court on Saturday extended the CBI custody of Sharad Kalaskar, an accused in the arms hauls case who is also being probed in connection with the murder of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar, till September 17. On September 4, the court had sent 10-day CBI custody which ended yesterday.

The court had on September 3 granted the custody of Kalaskar to the CBI for probing his alleged role in the killing of Dabholkar.

Kalaskar was arrested last month by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in connection with the seizure of arms and ammunition from different parts of the state.

Kalaskar and three other accused in the arms haul case - Vaibhav Raut, Sudhanwa Gondhalekar and Shrikant Pangarkar - were produced before Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Padalkar after their police remand ended. The judge, responding to an application filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), allowed the agency to take the custody of Kalaskar in the Dabholkar killing case.

On Aug 29, Court had rejected the CBI's plea to hand over Kalaskar's custody to the agency, which is probing the Dabholkar murder case, from the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS).

The ATS arrested Kalaskar on August 10 and his custody was extended till September 3 with the ATS submitting that he had planned to hurl a bomb at a music festival in Pune. After the hearing, however, the CBI filed an application, seeking his custody.