Cops ignored two alerts given by witness in Narendra Dabholkar killing
A key prosecution witness in the case related to the August 2013 murder of rationalist Dr Narendra Dabholkar said that he had thrice alerted the state police officials about the activities of accused Dr Virendra Tawade and a suspected assailant named in the recent CBI chargesheet.
The first time he informed the cops was three months before Dabholkar was shot dead by two motorcycle-borne men, while the second time was in August 2013, when he even spoke to a state Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) officer along with a Kolhapur police official. Despite the receipt of specific information from the witness, there was no headway in the police probe.
The CBI, which took over the case from the local police in 2014, eventually arrested Tawade three years later in June 2016. The witness' testimony — recorded under section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code — is part of the Central Bureau of India (CBI)'s case chargesheet in which Tawade was named as an accused, according to a government source familiar with the probe.
The witness, an old acquaintance of Tawade said the latter had allegedly begun interacting with him in Kolhapur, via one-on-one meetings and telephone calls made often from different landline co-nnections since April 2013, as part of the suspected plan to target Dabholkar.
According to the witness, Tawade was allegedly scouring for 'chocolates' - a code word for cartridges -and a unit to manufacture country-made firearms. Tawade contacted him as he ran a metal-based business and knew people dealing in country-made firearms. But the witness did not help Tawade procure what he was looking for. He also did not provide shelter to the two men sent by Tawade in June since he smelt a dead rat. Tawade has denied all allegations levelled against him by the CBI.
In May 2013, when the suspected assailant, Sarang Akolkar allegedly came to the witness's office to discuss how two firearms possessed by him could be replicated, the latter decided to alert the police. He called up a friendly Kolhapur policeman and informed him allegedly about Akolkar's presence outside his office with two country-made weapons, asking for his arrest. The cop however informed him that he was on leave and he could ask another policemen to look into the matter. The witness declined since he did not want to deal with a stranger.
After learning of Dabholkar's murder, the witness suspected that Tawade could have been involved in the murder. He informed a Kolhapur police inspector, who put him in touch with an ATS officer from Karad in Satara. The witness revealed the same details to the ATS officer but did not hear from him again.
A few days later when the witness enquired with the inspector, he was told that the ATS was making discreet enquiry about Tawade. The witness approached the Kolhapur police again in February 2015 on learning about the murder of communist leader Govind Pansare. According to the witness, he knew of Tawade's alleged hatred of Pansare and suspected that the two men sent to him for shelter in June 2013 could have been meant to surveil the communist leader.
