Doctor, four others emerge as part of jigsaw puzzle

As investigative agencies widened their probe, ENT surgeon Dr Virendra Tawde and four others have emerged as main suspects in the four sensational identical killings between August 2013 and September 2017.

The four other main suspects are Amol Kale, Rajesh Bangera, Sharad Kalaskar and Sachin Andhure, all associated with Right-wing organisations.

Their role in the four killings of rationalist Dr Narendra Dabholkar, Communist leader Govind Pansare, Kannada writer Prof M M Kalburgi and journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh, is being probed.

While Dr Tawde has been chargesheeted in the Dabholkar murder case by the CBI, Kale and Bangera have been arrested by the Karnataka-SIT in the Gauri Lankesh murder case. Kalaskar and Andhure are believed to be the two main shooters of the radical group, currently in custody of Maharashtra-ATS and CBI, respectively.

While reports said that they have been associated with the Sanatan Sanstha and Hindu Janjagriti Samiti, both the organisations have denied their involvement in the killings.

"They are the core people and were in touch with each other over the years," officials of the Intelligence department said.

When Gauri Lankesh was killed, Dr Tawde was in custody. He was arrested in connection with the murder of Dr Dabholkar and Pansare.

Group active?

From the investigations so far by the three agencies - CBI, Maharashtra-ATS and Karnakata-SIT, and the Kolhapur police-led SIT, it appears that after the arrest of Dr Tawde, Kale took over the operations of the group, while Bangera handled the training.

"Despite the crackdown and pressure, the group seemed to be active," sources said, adding that they had also hurled petrol bomb outside a theatre in Kalyan near Mumbai, where Padmaavat was being screened, and also outside a theatre in Belgaum.

Kalaskar also had plans to target the Sunburn festival in Pune.
The investigative agencies so far have seized three bikes and it is being examined whether these were used in the four murders carried out in an identical style.