CBI produces Tawade in court, Saturday. (Express Photo by Pavan Khengre) CBI produces Tawade in court, Saturday. (Express Photo by Pavan Khengre)

The CBI is believed to have cracked the plot behind the killing of Dr Narendra Dabholkar and identified the two alleged shooters who gunned down the rationalist in Pune in 2013, highly-placed sources in the agency told The Indian Express.

The two alleged shooters are members of Sanatan Sanstha, said sources, adding that both are also wanted in the 2009 Goa blast case. Sources said the CBI had identified one shooter as Sarang Akolkar, who is on the run, while the identity of the other has been withheld.

Sources said the agency’s findings were based on investigations, sketches and emails recovered from the laptop of one of the accused, Dr Virendra Tawade, a member of the Sanstha offshoot, Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS), who was arrested last Friday.

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“Our probe has led us to believe that the murder was carried out by a close-knit group of four, with Tawade being the second in command. We have found that Tawade was receiving orders from his handlers and passing them on to Akolkar and another Sanstha member. We believe the last two were the killers, and Tawade and his handler the key conspirators,” a senior official linked to the probe told The Indian Express.

According to sources, Tawade allegedly wrote in emails sent to Akolkar in 2010 that Dabholkar was their target.

“We believe that the task to eliminate Dabholkar was assigned by a senior member of HJS. Tawade, in turn, assigned the task to Akolkar. Tawade sent many emails to Akolkar in which he used words like ‘target’ and ‘eliminate’,” another senior official linked to the probe told The Indian Express.

This newspaper had reported earlier that one of the sketches prepared by the agency last year closely resembled images of Akolkar.

Sources said the CBI got its first big lead in the case with the alleged recovery of “a coded email sent by Tawade to Akolkar”. This was allegedly part of numerous emails exchanged between Tawade to Akolkar, between 2008 and 2013, said sources.

According to sources, Tawade, who is being questioned since June 1 at the CBI’s Navi Mumbai office, allegedly wrote in the email: “Desi aur videshi sahitya ke liye karkhana banana padega (We will have to make factories for domestic and foreign literature).”

Sources said that Tawade allegedly told interrogators that “desi sahitya” stood for countrymade pistols and “videshi sahitya” for foreign-made weapons.

”In emails between 2009 and 2010, the two discussed ‘sahitya’, which was expected as they are both ‘seekers’ of Sanatan Sanstha. But in one email, Tawde spoke of a ‘karkhana (factory)’. The word puzzled us as there is no connection between setting up a unit and literature,” said sources.

”Another email stated that ‘desi sahitya’ was available in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, while ‘videshi sahitya’ was available in Assam,” said the senior official.

According to sources, Tawade allegedly told interrogators that the larger plan was to raise an army of “15,000 sevaks to fight for a Hindu state”.

Tawde, the western Maharashtra commander of the HJS, reportedly referred to this “army” in various emails to Akolkar and other office-bearers of the samiti, the official said.

However, Tawade has continued to maintain during interrogation that he was not involved in the planning or execution of the killing of Dabholkar, said sources.

The CBI has, meanwhile, raided the Panvel office of Sanatan Sanstha and seized a hard disk. “The disk will be sent for forensic analysis to study its contents and the kind of material they had gathered against people who spoke against the outfit. This will help us in establishing our narrative that Dabholkar was not the only target,” said the official.

Dabholkar was gunned down by two unidentified persons on a motorcyle at around 7.20 am on August 20, 2013, on the Omkareshwar bridge in Pune. One month later, the probe was handed over to the CBI.

According to sources, the conspiracy to kill Dabholkar was hatched in June 2013, and Akolkar has been absconding since his name cropped up in the 2009 Goa blast case.

Sources claimed that the CBI has “technical evidence” to prove that Akolkar was in Pune in June 2013. They added that the agency had specific information on Akolkar’s whereabouts this month, based on which they raided his Pune residence on June 1. But Akolkar managed to give them the slip, said sources.

With Tawade’s remand ending on June 16, sources said the CBI may seek permission to subject Tawade to scientific tests, such as brain mapping and narco analysis. “The consent of the accused is required, but such tests usually give a clear direction to the probe,” said the official.

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