After 3 years, CBI makes first arrest in Dabholkar murder case

The CBI on Friday arrested Dr Virendra Tawde for the murder of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar in 2013. It is the first arrest in the case. Dabholkar, also an anti-superstition activist, was shot dead in broad daylight in Pune.

Tawde, an activist of Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, was on the CBI radar for a few months. He was arrested late on Friday night and was produced before a special court in Pune on Saturday.

He has been remanded to CBI custody till July 16. The Samiti is linked to radical Hindu group Sanatan Sanstha, which had come under the scanner for the murder of another rationalist Govind Pansare in February 2015.

During its searches, the CBI had unearthed a series of emails between Tawde and other Sanstha activists, which linked them to Dabholkar’s murder. Tawde, an ENT surgeon, was also in touch with activist Sarang Akolkar, against whom a Red Corner Notice was issued by the Interpol. The residences of Tawde and Akolkar, who is absconding, were searched by the CBI, and several SIM cards, cell phones and data from computers were recovered. 

“It is a welcome development,” said Hamid Dabholkar, son of Narendra Dabholkar. The Sanstha termed Tawde’s arrest a ‘pre-planned conspiracy to defame the spiritual organisation at the behest of pseudo-secularists’.