MUMBAI: The CBI on Saturday arrested Sanjeev Punalekar along with one Vikram Bhave in connection with Narendra Dabholkar’s murder, sources said. Punalekar was the defence lawyer in the murder case.
Sources in the CBI said the lawyer and his aide were arrested from their office on Saturday. They are likely to be produced before a vacation court on Sunday.
The spokesperson of the Sanatan Sanstha and the Hindu Vidhidnya Parishad, of which Punalekar was an officer bearer, said they had not been able to contact him and won’t be able to comment.
According to media reports, the Karnataka SIT, probing the Gauri Lankesh murder case, was told by Sharad Kalaskar, an accused in the Dabholkar murder case, that Punalekar had asked him to destroy the pistol allegedly used in murder of the rationalists.
Demand for Punalekar’s arrest was being raised after the SIT charge sheet named him earlier this year.
Kalaskar, who was arrested by Maharashtra ATS in the Nalasopara arms haul case last year, was named by the CBI as one of the shooters in the Dabholkar case.
The charge sheet said the two assassins who came on the bike to kill Dabholkar were Andure and Kalaskar.