Suspect alleges torture

PUNE: The CBI on Saturday arrested two men — accused of killing Gauri Lankesh — in the Narendra Dabholkar murder case.A CBI team obtained the custody of Amit Ramachandra Digwekar and Rajesh D Bangera from Bengaluru central prison around 5.30pm on Friday. A court here on Saturday sent the duo to the CBI custody till September 10. This is the first direct link established between the murders of journalist Lankesh and Dabholkar, a rationalist.The CBI said Bangera gave firearms training to Sachin Andure — one of the two men the investigating agency claimed to have shot Dabholkar — in Maharashtra and Karnataka. Digwekar and Virendrasinh Tawde, an ENT doctor arrested earlier in the Dabholkar murder case, participated in the meeting in which the conspiracy to murder Dabholkar was hatched.Sharad Kalaskar, one of the three suspects arrested recently for plotting blasts in various cities of the state, confessed to his involvement in the Dabholkar murder case and named Andure as one of the shooters.On Saturday, additional superintendent of police S R Singh produced the duo before judicial magistrate first class R R Bhalgat amid tight security. Singh filed a remand plea to send them to the CBI custody for 14 days. Another plea to send Andure to the judicial custody remand was also filed as his custodial interrogation was not essential.CBI special public prosecutor Vijaykumar Dhakane told the court that Bangera’s custodial remand was essential as he was named by Andure during questioning. Andure said Sharad Kalaskar — the other shooter — and he were given firearms training by Bangera at five places in Maharashtra and Karnataka. Kalaskar is in the custody of the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) till September 3.Dhakane also argued that it was essential to interrogate Digwekar to establish his and Tawde’s involvement in the murder conspiracy. The prosecution pleaded with the court to give the investigating officer sufficient time to establish the identity of the other conspirators.Opposing the CBI plea, defence lawyer Sameer Patwardhan cited the agency’s charge sheet filed against Tawde, arguing that the names of Bangera and Digwekar had not transpired in the investigation. He submitted that the CBI arrested the two men because of restrictions imposed by the Bombay high court, as well as pressure from the public and Dabholkar’s family and supporters.Citing the charge sheet, Patwardhan argued that the CBI had earlier identified Sarang Akolkar and Vinay Pawar as alleged shooters in the case. He produced sketches of the assailants and quoted witnesses, who had identified them as the shooters, and accused the agency for formulating a new theory implicating Bangera and Digwekar, without explaining how their names had figured in the investigation.He argued that the charge sheet mentioned that Tawde had hatched a conspiracy with Akolkar and Pawar to murder Dabholkar. He claimed that Bangera and Digwekar had no link — direct or otherwise — to Dabholkar’s case, and that they were arrested on suspicion because of their involvement in the Lankesh murder. He appealed to the court to reject CBI’s plea as sending them to custody “would amount to violation of their human rights”.Dhakane made a counter-argument that while the sketches resembled Akolkar and Pawar, nowhere in the charge sheet were they identified as the real assailants in Dabholkar’s murder. “Akolkar and Pawar have not been charge sheeted,” he added.The court, after hearing both sides, remanded Bangera and Digwekar in CBI custody till September 10. Andure was remanded in judicial custody for 14 days and later sent to Yerawada central prison.Patwardhan later filed three applications before the court. The first read that lawyers should be allowed to remain present when the suspects were being interrogated, while the other applications read that the suspects were not ready to make a confessional statement and that nothing was recovered from them.After the hearing, CBI officials said, “Bangera and Tawde had organized firearms training camps at Pune and Kolhapur in Maharashtra and Belagavi, Mangaluru and Madikeri in Karnataka. Tawde and the others made a conspiracy to murder Dabholkar. Our investigation had revealed that Andure had fired one round, while Kalaskar had fired twice on Dabholkar on August 13, 2013.”Digwekar complained to the court that he was tortured by the Karnataka special investigation team, probing the Lankesh murder. He appealed to the court to ensure that the CBI did not subject him to cruelty.