Life term for two in Dabholkar murder case, suspected ‘mastermind’ freed

Over a decade-and-a-half since the daylight murder of rationalist and anti-superstition crusader Narendra Dabholkar, a special Pune court convicted and sentenced to life two of the five arrested for the crime, while acquitting the other three with a stinging observation about the prosecution failing to "unmask the mastermind".
The trio acquitted for want of evidence includes accused No 1, Panvel-based ENT surgeon Virendrasinh Sharadchandra Tawde, whom CBI had identified as the "mastermind" of the crime.
"They (CBI and Pune Police) have to introspect whether it is their failure (to nail the conspirators) or deliberate inaction on their part due to influence by any person in power," special judge Prabhakar P Jadhav said.
The court found Sachin Prakashrao Andure (33) and Sharad Bhausaheb Kalaskar (28) guilty of shooting Dabholkar (69) to death on August 20, 2013. He was on his morning walk through Vitthal Ramji Shinde bridge near Omkareshwar temple in Pune's Deccan Gymkhana area. Besides getting a life term, the killers were convicted under Section 3 (25) of the Arms Act and fined Rs 500,000 each.
Apart from ENT surgeon Tawde, the court acquitted Mumbai lawyer Sanjiv Gajanan Punalekar and Vikram Vinay Bhave, both of whom were accused of assisting the shooters.
"The prosecution has not established beyond doubt the allegation of conspiracy against Tawde and, hence, he is acquitted. There was suspicion about Bhave and Punalekar, but there is no evidence against them. Hence, they are also being acquitted," special judge Jadhav said.
"Admittedly, except for ideological differences with deceased Dr Narendra Dabholkar, the accused Nos 2 (Andure) and 3 (Kalaskar) didn't have any personal enmity or rivalry with him. The murder was committed with a very well-prepared plan and executed by accused Nos 2 and 3.