Sachin Andure arrest: Cops to probe if gun recovered was used to shoot Dabholkar

The CBI had arrested Sachin Andure after a tip-off from the ATS. Sources said there were chances that he had met Dr Virendra Tawde, the main accused in the Dabholkar murder case

In a joint operation last morning, teams of CBI and Maharashtra ATS recovered a 7.65-mm bore gun along with three live cartridges, a dagger and a sword from the residence of a friend of Sachin Andure's brother-in-law in Aurangabad. Andure is the alleged shooter of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar.

Dabholkar probe
The CBI had arrested Andure after a tip-off from the ATS. Sources said there were chances that he had met Dr Virendra Tawde, the main accused in the Dabholkar murder case. CBI officers will be sending the weapon to the Forensic Science Laboratory in Kalina for ballistic testing, to check if the gun was used to kill Dabholkar, sources in the agency said. Currently, probes in the Dabholkar case by the CBI and in a right-wing terror case by the state ATS are running parallel.

Terror case probe
ATS may question Amol Kale, arrested by the Karnataka police in the Gauri Lankesh murder case, if his name crops up in the Nalasopara module connected to the terror case, in which crude bombs, guns and other material has been seized.

The ATS has learnt that the accused learnt to make bombs with the help of tutorials online and had travelled all over India for training. As per ATS sources, the accused communicated via a coded language.

"The right-wing group worked in compartments; they were not aware of each other's presence," a source said. The ATS is still trying to find out the motive behind the storage of bombs and guns. Officers added that of the four arrested, only Sharad Kalaskar's direct involvement in the Dabholkar case has been found. None of them are involved in the murders of Lankesh, Govind Pansare and M M Kalburgi, but probe is on, they said.

Sources also said that if the name of Sanatan Sanstha comes up in this case, they could question Jayant Athavale, head of the organisation. Sanatan Sanstha spokesperson Chetan Rajhans said their chief had been bedridden since 2007 and questioned in the past in the Dabholkar case, but nothing had come out of it, adding that Sanatan Sanstha has no involvement in Nalasopara or any other case.

The cases
Terror case: Vaibhav Raut, 40, and Sharad Kalaskar, 25, were held from Nalasopara, and Sudhanva Gondhalkar, 39, from Pune, on August 10, when they were allegedly planning terror attacks in Mumbai, Pune, Nalasopara, Satara and Kolhapur. The ATS recovered crude bombs, country-made pistols with magazines, country guns, airguns, pistol barrels, partially-made pistols, trigger mechanism, number plates of vehicles, a chopper, hard disks, pen drives and other material. Their questioning led to the arrest of former Shiv Sena corporator Shrikant Pangarkar, 40, from Jalna.

Dabholkar case: The rationalist was shot dead in Pune on August 20, 2013. The CBI arrested Dr Virendra Tawde for conspiracy, and later Sachin Andure, whose name came up during ATS's questioning of Kalaskar.

Also Read: Five years after Narendra Dabholkar's killing, his ideas find more takers

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