Narendra Dabholkar case: CBI question Virendra Tawade’s wife

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday seized 17 documents, including a passport and 35 CDs of Sanatan Santha programmes, from the Panvel home of Virendra Tawade, an arrested accused in the murder of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar. Officials said they were looking for documents pertaining to his black scooter, which is suspected to have been used during the attack on Dabholkar.The CBI on Tuesday also questioned Nidhi Tawade, who had arrived from London on Monday.

According to sources, Nidhi reached the CBI office in Belapur around 11.30 am on Tuesday with her mother and left by 1.30 pm. She told officials though she had married Virendra after falling in love with him, he had changed over the years. Also, he had stopped practising medicine immersed himself completely with Sanatan Sanstha activities, she said. She said though initially she too had joined him at Sanatan, she stopped after sometime.

“We learnt that Tawade abandoned all family responsibilities and devoted all his time to Sanstha,” said sources from the CBI. Nidhi said she had decided to separate from Tawade and with the help of her parents had bought a flat in Kalpataru Society, Panvel, where had been living with her daughter for the past two years. Here, Tawade would come to meet his daughter but the visits would not last for more than 10 minutes, Nidhi told the CBI. Sources said that Nidhi knew Akolkar was a Sanatan leader, but had not met him personally.

“We didn’t find anything suspicious about her. We will call her once more for questioning if necessary,” said a CBI official. Later, the investigating agency carried out a search at her Panvel house in Kalpataru Society, Room no.13, where they found 35 CDs of Sanatan Sanstha programmes and 17 documents, including Tawade’s passport.

Officials said they were looking for his scooter documents as Tawade too owned a black Bajaj Scooter, similar to the one that was used at the time of shooting Dabholkar. Tawade reportedly told the CBI that in 2013 he had sold his scooter to scrap dealer in Pune. “If it is true that he drove his scooter from Panvel to Pune, then it was in working condition. So, he had no reason to sell it,” the official said.