2 pistols may link all 3 murders

The CBI’s probe in the August 2013 Narendra Dabholkar murder case has revealed that a set of two country-made pistols could allegedly0 have been common to the murder of three rationalists during 2013-15 in Maharashtra and Karnataka. Apart from Dabholkar, Kolhapur’s communist leader Govind Pansare and Dharwad-based scholar M.M. Kalburgi were killed during the period.

A forensic test conducted in a government –run laboratory in Bengaluru concluded that two country-made pistols were used to target Pansare, out of which one each was used in the Dabholkar and Kalburgi cases, said a government source who is familiar with the probes into the three cases. The source said, “As per the Bengaluru laboratory’s report, the Pansare case is connected to the Dabholkar as well as the Kalburgi cases — thereby the key to establishing a common link across the three cases.” While the CBI is probing the Dabholkar case, the Maharashtra and Karnataka police are investigating the February 2015 Pansare and August 2015 Kalburgi cases, respectively. The CBI plans to get forensic samples found at the scene of crimes in the Pansare and Dabholkar cases — including bullets, cartridges’ shells and a country-made pistol of 7.65 mm — examined at the UK’s New Scotland Yard Police’s Forensic Science Laboratory for ballistic analysis.

“The Scotland Yard can determine whether a single country-made pistol of 7.65 mm calibre was used or two,” said the source.

The CBI has been probing only the Dabholkar case but the two other cases came under its scanner due to key similarities in the three crimes. Empty cartridges of a 7.65-mm country-made firearm were recovered from the sites where Dabholkar and Pansare were shot dead by motorbike-borne men in the early hours, according to the source.

The dispatch of the samples has been fraught with delays ever since the agency received court permissions for the move around three months ago.

The delay was caused due to the fact that sanctions from multiple government agencies were to be taken as it involves the dispatch of cartridges, said the source. A right-wing group is under the scanner in the three cases. Once Scotland Yard sends its findings to the CBI, the latter will submit its final ballistics report to the courts.

If a common link is established among the three cases, a CBI probe in the other two cases could be considered as well.