CBI nab suspect in Dabholkar murder case

Key suspect in rationalist Dr Narendra Dabholkar's murder has been arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of Maharashtra Police.

The arrest comes five years after Dabholkar was shot dead in Pune by two motor-cycle borne shooters.

The man arrested by the CBI has been identified as Sachin Prakashrao Andure, who hails from Aurangabad.

“He is one of the shooters who fired at Dr Dabholkar. Probe into the case is still on,” CBI officials said.

The Dabholkar murder case was initially investigated by the Deccan police station, Pune, however, it was transferred to the CBI in 2014.

The arrest was made by the CBI following an alert from the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of Maharashtra, which over the last 10 days have arrested three Right-wing activists and seized a huge cache of arms and explosives.

The ATS, however, so far has not disclosed their identity and background.

The Maharashtra-ATS in a press statement said that one of the three suspects admitted to his involvement in the murder of Dr Dabholkar and also named another suspect.

“During sustained interrogation, one of them revealed that along with him one more person was directly involved and both used a motorcycle for the crime. When this was revealed, the ATS summoned the second person for questioning, who also revealed similar details. The information was passed on to CBI, which arrested the second person,” the ATS said.