CBI connects Dabholkar and Pansare killers via phone talk

KOLHAPUR: Vinay Pawar, wanted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the Narendra Dabholkar murder case, is a close friend of Sameer Gaikwad, arrested for the murder of Govind Pansare, officers involved in the probe of the two cases confirmed on Friday.
Pawar's name cropped up for the first time in the Dabholkar murder case on Thursday when CBI officials told a Pune court that they were looking for him.CBI officials later told TOI that the Sanatan Sanstha member was one of those who had shot the rationalist.
During the interrogation of Gaikwad, who was arrested in September 2015 for Pansare's murder and against whom a chargesheet has been filed in a Kolhapur court, Pawar's name had emerged as one of his friends. A resident of Umbraj in Karad taluka of Satara district, Pawar has been on the run for four years.
The special investigation team (SIT) probing the Pansare murder case has verified Gaikwad's friendship with Pawar. His name appeared in Gaikwad's cellphone conservations with his female friend after June 2015. Since then, police had kept him under watch.
When the SIT interrogated Gaikwad's female friend, who is also a Sanatan Sanstha member, she admitted to have known Pawar for a few years. She even admitted to have seen him at Bhandup in Mumbai a few years ago. SIT and CBI officials are now working to establish the links between Gaikwad and Pawar to prove that the same group was behind the murder of the two rationalists.
Officials privy to the probe process told TOI on Friday that a joint meeting to share the details of the investigations was likely in Pune next week. The officials said personnel of the Karnataka CID, which is investigating the murder of M M Kalburgi, will also be present.
"Whatever the CBI has so far shared with us is informal communication. During next week's meeting, we will share the investigation reports. There are some suspects involved in both the cases and we are now focusing on them," an SIT official in Kolhapur said.
Since Virendra Tawade's arrest on June 10, the SIT has been looking for his possible connections with Gaikwad. Before that, Tawade was under the CBI scanner since February. At the last joint meeting with CBI in May, the agency shared some details on him with the SIT.
The officials said a key witness in the Dabholkar case has identified Pawar's photograph. "The witness told the CBI that Tawade had in April-May 2013 sent Pawar and another unidentified person to him in Kolhapur. The witness also told the interrogators that Tawade wanted him to arrange their stay at home," an official said.
Earlier investigations by the SIT and Kolhapur police established that Gaikwad and Rudra Patil, an absconder in the 2009 Goa bomb blast case, were friends and had started a cellphone repair shop in Sangli some eight years ago. The SIT's effort to arrest Rudra, however, failed.
Meanwhile, the Kolhapur police have not yet provided any security to the key witness in the Dabholkar murder case even as the Sanatan Sanstha revealed his identity. The witness is from Kolhapur and has been an activist of right-wing organizations for long time. It was on the basis of his accounts that the CBI arrested Tawade. "We are taking necessary precautions for the witness," said Dinesh Bari, in-charge of the additional superintendent of police, Kolhapur said.