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With the recent sentencing of two men to life imprisonment in the Narendra Dabholkar murder case, attention is drawn to the controversy that surrounded the initial investigation conducted by the Pune police in the early stages of the case.
Superstition vs. Rationalism in Dabholkar Murder Probe
In 2014, Pune police faced criticism for their purported use of superstitious methods, including attempting to communicate with the soul of Dr. Narendra Dabholkar, to solve his murder case. Although a subsequent inquiry by Maharashtra Police exonerated the city police, the irony of relying on such unscientific practices, especially in the investigation of a prominent rationalist’s death, was not lost on observers.
On May 10, a special court in Pune handed life imprisonment to two individuals and acquitted three others in the Dabholkar murder case. This verdict comes almost 11 years after the tragic incident when Dr. Dabholkar was fatally shot by two assailants on motorcycles on the V R Shinde bridge in Pune on August 20, 2013.
Dabholkar Murder Investigation Shifts from Pune Police to CBI
Initially, the Dabholkar murder case was investigated by the Pune city police until the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) assumed control in June 2014. Following this, the then-Pune police commissioner Gulabrao Pol was transferred in March 2014, and shortly after, he opted for voluntary retirement.
Yet, in July 2014, a news magazine report leveled accusations against him and others, including Manish Thakur, a former policeman turned godman, of resorting to planchette to crack the Dabholkar murder case, sparking nationwide concern. Planchette superstition entails gathering around a board to supposedly communicate with the deceased.
However, Pol refuted the accusations and pursued legal recourse against both the journalist who authored the report and the editor of the news magazine. Subsequently, the journalist released videos corroborating the allegations, purportedly showing Pol and Thakur engaging with him. Thakur allegedly communicated with Dabholkar’s spirit and relayed the information to the journalist, as depicted in the videos.
Maharashtra Authorities Launch Inquiry into DabholkarCase Allegations
Image source: India Today
After the uproar, R R Patil, Maharashtra’s then-home miniter, instructed the state police to probe the allegations raised in the report. Dr. Dabholkar’s family also demanded a thorough investigation. Consequently, the state government entrusted the inquiry to the then-Additional Director General of the Protection of Civil Rights (PCR) cell within the Maharashtra Police.
According to reports, the PCR cell gathered testimonies from the implicated police officers and other individuals, including the journalist. The journalist asserted that he had presented the videos to the inquiry committee as supporting evidence.
Additionally, Vikas Khandelwal, one of the individuals arrested by Pune city police in connection with the Dabholkar murder case, disclosed to The Indian Express that the former police officer, accused of conducting the séance, had visited him while he was in police custody in November 2013 for another offense.
Khandelwal, along with alleged firearms dealer Manish Nagori, was formally apprehended by Pune police in January 2014 in relation to the Dabholkar murder case. However, the CBI did not include them as suspects in the Dabholkar murder investigation.
In September 2014, the PCR cell concluded its inquiry and absolved Pol, Thakur, and other implicated individuals of any wrongdoing in relation to the planchette allegations.
In an interview with The Indian Express, Minister Patil stated, “The report indicates no evidence of planchette usage in the Pune police commissioner’s office. I have yet to review the report’s other findings.” However, the report was not released to the media or the public.
Verdict Revealed: Two Convicted, Three Acquitted in DabholkarMurder Case
In its recent ruling, the special court in Pune found Sachin Prakashrao Andure and Sharad Bhausaheb Kalaskar guilty of firing shots at Dabholkar, while Dr. Virendrasinh Tawade, lawyer Sanjiv Punalekar, and activist Vikram Bhave, associated with Sanatan Sanstha, were acquitted due to lack of evidence.
The court noted that Andure and Kalaskar, despite their “commercial and social status,” were not the masterminds of the crime, implying the involvement of others. Critically, the court highlighted the failure of Pune police and the CBI to identify the true masterminds, prompting questions of whether this was due to incompetence or external influence.
