The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will tell the Bombay High Court that the bike and the weapon used in the killing of rationalists Govind Pansare and Narendra Dabholkar were the same, reports The Indian Express citing sources.
The two murders were carried out in the similar fashion by bike-borne gunmen. The CBI reportedly had plans to approach Scotland Yard in order to verify whether the same weapon was used to kill three rationalists – anti-superstition activist Dr Narendra Dabholkar, veteran CPI leader Govind Pansare and rationalist writer MM Kalburgi.
A Ear-Nose-Throat surgeon by profession, Virendra Tawade, leader of extremist group Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS), reportedly rode from his residence in Panvel to Pune on 22 January 2013 on his black Honda Splendor. Dabholkar was killed eight months later on 20 August 2013 on a bridge in Pune.
Tawade used the same motorcycle to travel to Kolhapur in Maharashtra in December 2014. On 20 February 2015, Govind Pansare was shot dead. In both cases, Tawade is suspected to have given his bike to the assailants.
The CBI source as told The Indian Express that Tawade has refused to reveal where the bike is or what he did with it after Pansare’s murder. However, now that his custody has been transferred to the Kolhapur police, they will probe him at length.
The hard disks recovered from Sanatan Sanstha, a sister organisation of HJS, has also revealed that the extremist organisation’s failed attempts at carrying out bomb blasts in Goa, Thane, and Thane. Post these failures, the groups decided to target individuals instead.
Although the blast attempts failed, Tawade is suspected to be the key conspirator in the 2009 Goa blasts case.
The Pansare and Dabholkar family members have decided to “approach Goa High Court to monitor the probe and fast-track the case”.
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