Scotland Yard approached over differing Indian FSL findings

Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare

India has signed a treaty with 121 countries for mutual legal assistance, including the UK. As per the procedure, the UK Home Office was approached by their Indian counterparts to request their intervention to permit the Scotland Yard to carry out the ballistic study in the murder cases of rationalists Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare and MM Kalburgi. This intervention was required as there were some difference in the findings of FSL, Kalina and FSL, Bengaluru, said a source privy to the case.

The source added, "CBI took the step in the larger interest of the case and hence, approached Scotland Yard. The MEA, Central Home Ministry, CBI and even Indian High Commission in United Kingdom did numerous reminders and follow-ups, but still there was no response from the UK Home Office."

'Don't send exhibits'
"It was only after the CBI received a mail from the forensic expert of the Scotland Yard, informing them not to send the exhibit for testing to them, as they have not received any formal communication from their home office, it was finally decided not to pursue them," the source said.

Moreover, the Bombay High Court in an earlier order had categorically stated that the ‘option is open for CBI', when the ballistic investigations were discussed during an earlier hearing. Since there was no point in sending the samples to any other country, it was decided to send the sample to FSL in Ahmedabad.

"The report from FSL Gujarat has been given to the court. All we can say is that the finding is an elaborate one, which matches the Bengaluru FSL's. However, the findings of the Kalina FSL are not matching with the other two," the source revealed.

FSL Mumbai says
Earlier, the Kalina FSL had matched the bullets in the body of Dabholkar with the pistol the CBI had recovered. Following this, the Pune police arrested Manish Nagori, an illegal arms dealer and his aide, Vikas Khandelwal, on January 20, 2014. They had claimed that the ballistic expert said the bullets fired from one of the 7.65 mm revolvers seized from Khandelwal were the same that killed Dabholkar and Nagori had supplied the revolver. The two, however, denied involvement in Dabholkar's murder.

A forensic scientist with Kalina FSL said, "We received the weapon 7565, which was recovered from the arrested accused by the police and we found that the weapon matched the bullet recovered from Dabholkar's body. However, when we tested the same weapon after Pansare's killing, with the bullets pumped into his body, it did not match. We submitted our report accordingly."

The forensic scientist added, "Let a committee of ballistic experts be formed and let them opine on the findings of the Mumbai, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad FSL, instead of making loose comments and questioning our findings."