Mumbai | A session court in Mumbai on Wednesday rejected the CBI’s plea demanding the custody of accused Sharad Kalaskar in Narendra Dabholkar’s murder case.
CBI wanted to question Kalaskar with another accused Sachin Andure in its investigation of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar murder case. Andure is currently under CBI’s custody till August 30 after being arrested from Aurangabad.
The Court rejected CBI’s application as it has applied for a remand after the accused was already remanded to Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) custody till September 3. The Court also stated that the same accused was sent to ATS custody in a terror conspiracy case on Tuesday and the court cannot remand this accused from ATS to CBI according to CrPC 367.
The Court in its hearing slammed the agency for not approaching the court before Tuesday, when it gave custody of the Kalaskar to ATS, as the CBI had the production warrant with them since August 23.
During the hearing, Kalaskar’s lawyer raised questions on ATS approach in giving NOC to the CBI custody of the accused. After this, the court slammed ATS for its approach in giving its no objection to the CBI application seeking remand. Defence lawyer Sanjiv Punalekar told the court that ATS is investigating a terror conspiracy case and it was astonishing that it is ready to hand over its terror accused to the CBI in a murder case of just one person.
Rationalist and founder of Maharashtra Andshardha Nirmoolan Samiti, Narendra Dabholkar was assassinated on 20 August 2013 by two unidentified gunmen.
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