Amol Kale held in Pansare murder case

KOLHAPUR

: The special investigating team (SIT) probing the Govind Pansare murder case on Thursday arrested Chinchwad-resident Amol Kale, a suspect in the Gauri Lankesh and

Narendra Dabholkar

murders too, for his alleged role in the killing.

The Maharashtra SIT took Kale into custody on Wednesday night from its Karnataka counterpart, which is probing the Gauri Lankesh murder case. Kale is the third suspect to be arrested in the Pansare murder case, the other two being Sameer Gaikwad and Virendrasinh Tawade. Both Gaikwad and Tawade have been granted bail in the case.

The court of judicial magistrate-first class (JMFC) S S Raul remanded Kale in police custody till November 22.

Special public prosecutor Shivajirao Rane told the court that they suspect Kale to have provided weapons training to a group of people in Kolhapur and need his custody to investigate who he trained and at which locations.

“We told court that prima facie investigations suggest that Kale was involved in Pansare murder case. He has provided weapons training to some persons in an open ground in the Kolhapur region. He used to visit Kolhapur at intervals and has connection with people from there. We will also try to get details about the people he was in touch with and who were assisting him in Kolhapur,” Rane said.

The prosecution demanded that Kale be remanded in police custody for 14 days, stating that the SIT needs to travel from Mumbai to Bangalore to search for evidence and seize material that may help in speeding up the investigation. The court, however, granted police custody for eight days. The court also granted permission to Kale’s lawyer to meet him in police custody between 5pm and 6pm every day.