PUNE: A Pune court on Thursday granted the police custody till September 14 of right-wing activist Amol Kale in connection with the murders of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar and Bengaluru journalist Gauri Lankesh.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which secured Kale's custody from the Karnataka Police, produced him before Shivajinagar Court Judicial Magistrate S.M.A. Sayyad who sent him to eight days' custody.
Opposing the CBI's remand plea, Kale lawyer Dharmraj Chandel said even if prima facie evidence is available against his client, it did not warrant custodial interrogation.
He also demanded that Kale should be only questioned about the Dabholkar murder and not about the killing of Communist leader Govind Pansare.
Dabholkar was killed on August 20, 2013 in Pune and Lankesh was killed on September 5, 2017 and police suspect both the murders are connected.
The Karnataka Police SIT had arrested Kale in May as the third suspect in the Lankesh murder case, besides the earlier arrests of Rajesh Bangera and Amit Digvekar.
In the Dabholkar killing case, there are five accused: Sachin Andure, Sharad Kalaskar and the aforementioned trio (Kale, Bangera and Digvekar).
According to the investigators, Kale allegedly provided firearms and a two-wheeler to Andure and Kalaskar who killed Dabholkar.
Andure and Kalaskar were nabbed by the Maharashtra ATS last month and their role in the Dabholkar case was revealed during their interrogation.