Accused In Gauri Lankesh Case Conspired Dabholkar Murder Too: CBI
PUNE: Three accused in journalist Gauri Lankesh murder case were conspirators in the Narendra Dabholkar murder too, and one of them imparted weapon-training to Dabholkar's shooters, the CBI told a court here Saturday.
The Central Bureau of Investigation arrested Sachin Andure, one of the alleged shooters of Dabholkar, last month.
The agency on Saturday produced Rajesh Bangera and Amit Digvekar, both accused in the Lankesh murder case, along with Andure in the Pune court. Andure's CBI remand ended on Saturday.
The court sent Digvekar and Bangera in CBI custody till September 10, while Andure was sent in judicial custody.
Claiming that there was a link between the accused in the two cases, the CBI on Friday took the custody of Bangera and Digvekar from the Karnataka Special Investigation Team which is probing the Lankesh murder.
"Bangera, a government employee and PA to a Congress MLC in Karnataka, gave weapon-training to both the shooters, Andure and (Sharad) Kalaskar, who killed Dr Dabholkar," CBI lawyer Vijaykumar Dhakane told the court here.
Bangera was also involved in the conspiracy of Dr Dabholkar's murder, and CBI needs to interrogate him to find out where he imparted training, the source of fire arms, and "present whereabouts of the fire arms", the prosecutor said.
As to Digvekar, the CBI lawyer said he had helped Andure to do a reconnaissance of Dabholkar's house and the routes that the anti-superstition activist usually took.
"Digvekar lived in a Goa-based Ashram for over 15 years and was associated with Dr Virendra Tawde, one of the key conspirators in Dabholkar case. Digvekar is one of the co-conspirators in Dabholkar murder case as entire conspiracy was hatched by Dr Tawde along with Digvekar and this conspiracy needs to be unearthed," said the CBI lawyer.
Defence lawyer Samir Patwardhan pointed out from the CBI's charge sheet against Tawde that the agency had earlier claimed that Sarang Akolkar and Vinay Pawar had shot Dabholkar, and now it has come out with a different version.
After hearing both the sides, Judicial Magistrate (First Class) R R Bhalgat remanded Bangera and Digvekar in CBI custody till September 10 and sent Andure in judicial remand.
The CBI could not take the custody of Amol Kale, a third accused in Lankesh case who it says is one of the main conspirators in Dabholkar case too, due to some technicalities, its lawyer said.
Sharad Kalaskar, the second alleged shooter who fired on Dabholkar, is in the custody of Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad in an explosives seizure case.
Dabholkar was shot dead in Pune on August 20, 2013, while Gauri Lankesh was murdered in Bengaluru on September 5, 2017.
courtesy : ndtv.com
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
