mumbai

Updated: Feb 26, 2015 00:56 IST

In a sharp contrast to former home minister the late RR Patil’s comment, former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar on Wednesday claimed Gulabrao Pol was transferred from the post of police commissioner of Pune for carrying out “planchette” to get leads in the Dabholkar murder case.

Anti-superstition activist Narendra Dabholkar was shot dead by unidentified assailants in Pune on August 20, 2013. The Pune police had formed 19 teams to solve the case, but failed to make a breakthrough. Pol was accused of summoning retired constable Manish Thakur to carry out a séance with Dabholkar’s soul for leads in the case.

“When we got to know that senior officers were involved in carrying out planchette, we immediately shifted the police chief,” said Pawar, at an event in Pune.

The investigating team was also accused of using “black magic” to implicate the two suspects -- Vikas Khandelwal and Manish Nagori. Khandelwal, who was arrested in the case but released on bail, alleged he was implicated on the instructions of a “tantrik”.

However, on September 24, 2014, Patil, the then home minister, had claimed, “The inquiry report did not find any evidence suggesting planchette was used at the Pune police commissioner’s office.”

A month after the allegations against the Pune police, Patil had, on July 25, 2014, ordered an additional DG rank officer to probe the allegations. While Pol resigned from the service on March 11, 2014, he was shifted to the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd a week later, as the chief vigilance officer.