Tawade ‘admits’ to hunting for revolver, bullets

Kolhapur:

Sanatan Sanstha

member Virendrasinh

Tawade

, who was arrested by the CBI for allegedly plotting rationalist Narendra Dabholkar’s murder in August 2013, is said to have admitted to having looked for a

revolver

and

bullets

between April and May 2013. After dodging CBI interrogators since his arrest on June 10, Tawade reportedly finally began to spill the beans when brought face-to-face with a key

witness

, the same person he had been allegedly pursuing for the ammunition. Cops have not revealed the witness’ identity in order to protect him. A senior officer privy to the interrogation told TOI that the witness, who was presented before Tawade as a co-accused in the Dabholkar murder, said in the presence of CBI sleuths that Tawade had met him twice and called him several times. Since Tawade’s arrest, CBI officials have been questioning him about his meeting with the Kolhapur-based witness for a revolver and bullets. Tawade, though, insisted that he had met the witness only to inquire about his health. CBI had convinced the Kolhapur resident to become a witness in the case even before Tawade’s arrest. “On Tuesday, when the witness was brought face-to-face with Tawade, CBI officials tried to project that he was a co-accused in the case. They shouted at the witness, ordering him to sit on the floor. When they asked Tawade to speak up, he told the witness that he had related to CBI how he had met him once in 2013 to inquire about his health,” the senior police officer said. The CBI officials then asked the witness for his account. “The witness told Tawade that he was in CBI’s custody for the past two days and had shared information about their conversations over revolvers and bullets. The CBI officials then asked the witness to elaborate every single detail before Tawade that they had already recorded,” the officer said. “When the witness finished giving his statement, Tawade was stunned. He was silent for a while and then admitted to his meetings with the witness and the subsequent phone calls. He also told the investigating officers that he had forgotten some details which he recalled after the witness gave his statement,” the officer said. CBI officials, though, said that Tawade has not admitted to communicating with Sarang Akolkar. “However, the witness recognized Akolkar from the photographs shown to him by the police. As per the witness’s account, Tawade had introduced him to Akolkar in Kolhapur in 2013 ,” they said. The identification is significant as Akolkar has been absconding since the 2009 Goa bomb blast. The officials also showed the witness around ten photos and asked him to identify the two men who had come to Kolhapur seeking a few days’ stay on Tawade’s directives. “He could identify one of them as Vinay Pawar, a resident of Umbraj in Satara district.”