Foreign agency roped in to trace arms used in Dabholkar case

Mumbai: The Central Bureau of Investigation, which is probing the killing of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar, told the Bombay High Court on Friday that it has roped in a foreign agency to help find the weapons used in the case.

CBI counsel and Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh told a bench of justices S C Dharmadhikari and G S Patel that experts from the agency will reach India on Sunday.

The entire task will take 30 days, he said.

Singh told the high court that it is suspected that the weapons were dumped by the accused in the Thane creek after the incident.

The bench was hearing petitions filed by the kin of Dabholkar and late leftist leader Govind Pansare, seeking that the court monitors the probe into both the cases.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Maharashtra government, which is probing the Pansare case, told the high court that its officers could not reach the court due to heavy rains and flooding in Kolhapur.

The high court, therefore, adjourned the hearing till September 16.

While Dabholkar was shot dead on August 20, 2013 in Pune, Pansare was shot at on February 16, 2015 in Kolhapur and succumbed to injuries a few days later.