JOIN USIn a new twist to the murder of rationalist and anti-superstition activist Dr Narendra Dabholkar, former Deputy Chief Minister and senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar on Wednesday confirmed that the then Democratic Front government had to transfer the Pune Police commissioner Gulabrao Pol as he resorted to “planchet” to seek a breakthrough in the case
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Dr Dabholkar was shot dead in Pune on August 20, 2013, and the case could not be solved by the Crime Branch of Pune Police – and now at the orders of the Bombay High Court, the probe had been handed over to the CBI.
On March 5, 2014, Pol was replaced by Satish Mathur – and the former was transferred as Additional Director General of Police in-charge of Mahavitaran, the energy distribution utility of Maharashtra. Pol later took voluntary retirement.
During July 2014, a sting operation by activist-journalist Ashish Khetan showed that the then Pune Police had sought help of a retired police havaldar-cum-tantric Manish Thakur to crack the murder of Dr Dabholkar. Pol had denied the “planchet” and threatened to file defamation suit.