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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Telangana CM urges Amit Shah to increase sanctioned strength of IPS officers in state
Hyderabad (PTI): Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi on Wednesday night and urged him to increase the sanctioned strength of IPS officers to the state in view of its growing administrative and security needs.
The two leaders also discussed the recent surrender of several senior Maoist leaders before the Telangana Police and other issues.
"During the meeting, the two leaders discussed the issue of Maoist surrenders and their rehabilitation. The chief minister informed Shah that significant improvements in policing have taken place in Telangana over the past two years," an official release here said.
Highlighting that 591 Maoists have laid down their arms and joined the mainstream of society during this period, the chief minister said the state government was providing them compensation and rehabilitation assistance as per the rules.
He requested the Union home minister to extend financial support from the central government for development works in the backward regions of the state.
Reddy also urged Shah to increase the sanctioned strength of IPS officers to the state from 83 to 105 in line with the state's growing administrative and security needs, the statement said.
The first cadre review after the formation of Telangana was conducted in 2016, while the next review, due in 2021, was delayed and finally carried out in 2025. Even then, only seven additional IPS officers were allocated to the state, the chief minister informed Shah and requested that the third cadre review be conducted in 2026 as per the schedule.
Reddy explained that Telangana, like the rest of the country, is facing several modern challenges, including cybercrime, drug trafficking, white-collar crimes, and other emerging security threats.
He highlighted the reorganisation of the Hyderabad, Cyberabad, and Malkajgiri Police Commissionerates, the proposed formation of the Future City Commissionerate and the rapidly growing population in Hyderabad to underline the increasing administrative requirements of the state.
