In a clear establishment of link between the Narendra Dabholkar-Gauri Lankesh-Govind Pansare murders, the Maharashtra Police on Tuesday arrested right-wing activist Sharad B Kalaksar in connection with the murder of veteran CPI leader Pansare.

Having taken Kalaskar from the custody of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Kolapur Police produced him before Judicial Magistrate (Mrs.) SS Raul of Kasbah-Bavda Court in Kolhapur in western Maharashtra who sent him to police custody till June 18.

Kalaskar had been arrested first by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS)  in August last year in connection with a plot to engineer blasts in five cities of Maharashtra including Mumbai, Pune, Solapur and Satara. Kalskar’s arrest came after the SIT investigated his link with Pansare’s murder and recorded his statement. 

The CBI had earlier invoked Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) against two sharp shooters Kalaskar and Sachin Andure and charged them under relevant Indian Penal Code sections for criminal conspiracy and murder and provisions of Arms Act and UAPA in connection with rationalist Narendra Dabhoolkar’s murder.

CPI leader Govind Pansare (82) and his wife Uma (67) had been shot from a close range, near their residence “Ideal Housing Society” at around 8.30 am on February 16, 2015, when the couple was returning from a morning walk from the Shivaji University campus at Kolhapur.  Four days later, Pansare succumbed to injuries sustained in the shoot-out, while his wife Uma survived the attack.  

Pansare’s murder, it may recalled, had come on the heels of a gruesome murder of 69-year-old anti-superstition campaigner Dabholkar, who was shot dead him from a point blank range by two motor-bicycle riding gunmen — aged between 25 and 30 years, while he was taking a morning walk on the Omkareshwar bridge located in the heart of Pune, on August 20, 2013.

It may be recalled on December 1 last year, the SIT had arrested two more persons — Bharat Jayant Kurne and Vasudev Bhagwan Suryavamshi — in connection with the Govind Pansare murder case.

While Kurne is an accused in the Gauri Lankesh murder case, Suryavanshmi is an accused in the arms haul case. The SIT had obtained the custody Kurne and Suryavamshi from the Karnataka police and National Investigation Agency (NIA) respectively on Friday night. Both Kurne and Suryavamshi were formally placed under arrest by the SIT.

The arrest of Suryavanshi and Kurne had come a fortnight after the arrest of another suspect Amol Kale, who is one of the key conspirators in the /murders of anti-superstition crusader Narendra Dabholkar and Journalist Gauri Lankesh. Kale was formally arrested by the SIT on November 15, 2018.

The SIT had arrested Sanatan Sansatha activist Samir Gaikwad on September 16, 2015. Subsequently, the SIT filed a chargesheet against Sameer Gaikwad, the lone accused in the case.

Subsequently, the SIT took into custody Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS) activist Dr Virendrasinh Tawde.

In a chargesheet filed in the the Kolhapur sessions court on September 8, 2016, the SIT named Tawde as the key accused and named  Sanatan Sanstha activists Samir Gaikwad and Vinay Pawar as co-accused accused in the murder of CPI leader Govind Pansare. The investigators later named Vinay Pawar and Sarang Akolkar as the two men who shot Pansare. Then came the arrest of Kale on November 15 last year.

With the latest arrest of Kalaskar, the total number of accused in the Govind Pansare murder case has gone up to eight. The investigations by the CBI have revealed that that it was Kalaskar who had accompanied Andhure in a motorcycle and gunned down Dr Dabholkar.  Among other things that the CBI had disclosed in its remand application that one of the arrested accused in the Gauri Lankesh murder case, had handed over one 7.65 mm country made pistol and three bullets with magazine to Andhure. With Kalaskar’s arrest, the link between the murders of Dabolkar, Gauri Lankesh and Pansare has been established.