Alka Verma-
Published On: October 14, 2021 at 13:09 IST
On Wednesday, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) submitted a list of 32 witnesses before a Special Court.
The witnesses were connected with the murder case of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar.
CBI Special Public Prosecutor Advocate Prakash Suryawanshi, appearing for the CBI, gave the list to the Court and also mentioned that they may have more witnesses when required.
Additional Sessions Judge: Accepting the list of witnesses, Judge of Special Court SR Navandar stated that the matter would be heard on October 29.
“Today, we submitted a list of 32 witnesses before the Additional Sessions Judge (special court judge) SR Navandar and the matter has been posted for further proceedings on October 29” stated Prakash Suryawanshi.
Also, the Court stated that the questioning of two witnesses plus the search of Dabholkar’s Pune resident would be examined at the next hearing.
Furthermore, the Court asked the Counsels appearing for the prosecution and for the defence to fix dates for the examination of witnesses.
Accordingly, the Court ordered that more witnesses would be examined on the 13th, 20th and 27th of November and 4th, 11th, 18th, 19th and 25th of December.
Also, Advocate Suvarna Avhad Vast, appearing for the accused persons, submitted an Application requesting details of the case like the recording of the post-mortem of Dabholkar’s body as well as photographs and X-ray reports of the dead body.
The Prosecution had already submitted a list of 13 documents, which included the ‘spot panchnama’, ‘inquest panchnama’, seizure of clothes and articles of the deceased, and various other documents, mentioning those as the evidence.
However, the defendant refused to accept this list of documents.
Dabholkar, the founder of the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti, an anti-superstition outfit, was shot dead by members of a right-wing group in Pune on August 20, 2013.
The investigation, which was earlier conducted by the Pune Police, was handed over to the CBI.
Virendra Sinh Tawde, Sachin Andure, Sharad Kalaskar, Sanjeev Punalekar, and Vikram Bhave were identified as the prime accused and they all were booked under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Section 302 (murder), Section 120(B) (criminal conspiracy), Section 34 (common intention), relevant sections of the Arms Act, and section 16 of the stringent UAPA.