Three murders, a string of similarities

Kolhapur: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the Govind Pansare murder case was taken into confidence by CBI before raiding and arresting Virendra Tawade on Friday.
The details of documents, emails and mobile conversations of Tawade were shared with SIT, a senior police officer aware of the investigation told TOI on the condition of anonymity.Though the raids and arrest were made by the CBI, the investigating agencies were tracking him for quite some time, another official said.
For the past six months, SIT, CBI and Karnataka CID, which is investigating the murder of scholar M M Kalburgi, have been trying to establish the similarities in the three murders after the agencies were pulled up by Bombay high court several times. The kin of Pansare, Dabholkar and Kalburgi had demanded joint investigations. Incidentally, the kin accused right-wing organizations for the murders.
SIT arrested Sameer Gaikwad, a disciple of Sanatan Sanstha, a right-wing organization, in the Pansare murder case on September 16, 2015. Tawade is also the follower of the same organization, which remained at the centre of investigation in all the three murders.
According to an official, who is a part of the Pansare murder probe, the rationalist background of the three murdered scholars, their strong opposition to the right-wing organizations, the timing of their murders and the firearms used are the four elements, where the three investigation agencies have found similarities. Tawade's arrest on Friday only proved the direction was right, the officer categorically said.
Though SIT and CBI never commented about the similarities in the three murders, the Karnataka CID had in December 2015 admitted that the firearms used in the three murders were the same. The CID conducted separate ballistic analysis of 11 empty cartridges recovered from the spots of the three murders. The analysis revealed the firearms used in the three murders were similar and were country-made 7.65mm pistols. Ballistic fingerprinting of the cartridges concluded the weapons were identical.
When contacted over phone, Sanjay Kumar, the SIT chief and the additional director-general of CID, Maharashtra, refused to talk about Tawade's arrest and said the CBI was probing the Dabholkar case. But he said the agencies were sharing the details of investigations wherever necessary.
Kumar is in Hyderabad at present for training.
None of the SIT officials could confirm if they would demand the custody of Tawade to investigate his role in the Pansare case, but said Gaikwad was questioned by the CBI in March and SIT might follow the same process instead of possessing custody. "We will wait for orders from the higher authorities to question Tawade. We have gathered details of Tawade's stay in Kolhapur for few years and investigating if in any way Tawade and Gaikwad were in contact," another official involved in the Pansare murder case investigation said.