Hope real culprits behind murder will be found soon, say Narendra Dabholkar's children

PUNE: Hameed Dabholkar, son of slain rationalist Dr Narendra Dabholkar, today expressed satisfaction about the CBI's announcement that it had arrested one of the shooters involved in his father's killing, and said he hoped the "real perpetrators" will be found soon.

"This is the second arrest in five years in the case and we hope that with this arrest, investigating agencies will get to the real perpetrators who were involved in the killing of Dr Dabholkar," he said.

Mukta Dabholkar, Dr Dabholkar's daughter, said today's arrest was a crucial development.

"Had similar action been taken in the past, killings of other rationalists could have been prevented," she said, in apparent reference to killings of communist leader Govind Pansare, Kannada scholar M M Kalburgi and journalist Gauri Lankesh.

It is suspected that all these killings were carried out by right-wing extremists and were connected.

Monitoring of the probe of Dabholkar case by the Bombay High Court also helped as the court was constantly putting pressure on the investigating agencies, Mukta Dabholkar said.

The arrest in the case comes before the fifth anniversary of Dabholkar's killing on August 20, 2013 in Pune.

Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti, the anti-superstition organisation founded by Dr Dabholkar, had earlier decided to intensify its protest against the slow pace of the probe.

"It is just one arrest and the real perpetrators are yet to be arrested. So we will continue our protest till all real culprits are put behind bars," said Hameed Dabholkar.

The CBI today arrested the alleged main shooter in the Dabholkar case, identified as Sachin Prakasrao Andure, a resident of Aurangabad in Maharashra, from Pune.