Dabholkar murder case: Court denies CBI further custody of lawyer, aide
Pune, Jun 4: A court here on Tuesday turned down a CBI request seeking further custody of advocate Sanjeev Punalekar and his assistant Vikram Bhave, arrested in the Narendra Dabholkar murder case, and sent them to judicial custody for 14 days.
The agency did not present any fresh grounds for seeking their custody, the court said.
Punalekar, who had represented some of the accused in the Dabholkar murder case of 2013, and Bhave were arrested on May 25 by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the same case.
Seeking further custody of the duo, Special Public Prosecutor Prakash Suryawanshi said the CBI had recovered some crucial data, including names and contact numbers, from Punalekar's laptop and mobile phone, and it wanted to interrogate him further based on these leads.
The "Forensic Psychology Assessment" and "Forensic Statement Assessment" tests of Punalekar indicated that he was deceptive, the prosecutor claimed.
Punalekar and Bhave were in CBI's custody for 11 days.
Additional Sessions Judge R M Pande rejected the central probe agency's request for further remand and sent the two accused to judicial custody.
The judge, in the written order, said the grounds cited while asking for further custody were not "satisfactory".
"I have gone through the earlier remand reports...on the same grounds, the police (CBI) custody was granted and thereafter, on the same grounds, it was extended," he said.
Sufficient CBI custody had already been granted, the order said.
Dabholkar, a well-known anti-superstition activist, was shot dead in Pune on August 20, 2013.
According to the CBI, which has arrested some persons connected to right-wing organisation Sanatan Sanstha in the case, Punalekar had advised one of the alleged shooters to destroy the weapons.
Some of the accused in the case are also linked to the 2015 murder of communist leader Govind Pansare and the 2017 murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh, investigating agencies have claimed.
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Bihar hooch tragedy toll rises to nine as three more persons die
Motihari (PTI): The toll in the hooch tragedy in Bihar's East Champaran district rose to nine on Sunday after three more people who had consumed spurious liquor died, officials said.
The first death was reported on Thursday, they said.
A total of 15 people have been arrested in connection with the deaths in the Turkauliya and Raghunathpur areas of Motihari, District Magistrate Saurabh Jorwal said.
A case of murder has already been registered on the basis of complaints filed by the family members of the deceased, police said.
Jorwal said one person is still in the hospital and his condition is reported to be critical.
"Seven persons have already been discharged after treatment," he told PTI.
"The bodies of the deceased have been sent for post-mortem examination. The exact cause of the deaths can only be known after the reports arrive," he said.
The SHO of Turkauliya police station has already been suspended on charge of dereliction of duty, and a special investigation team has been constituted to probe the incident, officials said.
The deaths have led to a political slugfest in the state, where the sale and consumption of alcohol has been banned since 2016.
