Mumbai: A Mumbai sessions court on Wednesday rejected the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI’s) application seeking custody of accused Sharad Kalaskar (25) in the August 2013 Dr Narendra Dabholkar murder case. Kalaskar is one of the accused arrested by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in connection with the seizure of explosives and arms from Nalasopara, Thane, earlier this month.

Additional sessions Judge Vinod Padalkar, while rejecting the application, said that the court could not remand Kalaskar to CBI custody as he was in another agency’s remand i.e. that of ATS.

He added that the CBI had failed to provide any legal provision for seeking Kalaskar’s custody. The court also asked why the CBI approached it one week after the transit remand was issued on August 23.

The CBI in its application said that it needed to bring Kalaskar face to face with Sachin Andure - allegedly the main shooter in the Dr Dabholkar murder case - to determine his role in the killing. The CBI said that it was planning to confront both Kalaskar and Andure in the said case.

Kalaskar is one of the five right-wing activists arrested by the ATS in the explosives’ seizure case. The five allegedly hatched the conspiracy to trigger blasts in the state.

On August 10, the ATS arrested Raut (40) who ran the “Hindu Govansh Raksha Samiti”, following which it arrested three more activists i.e. Kalaskar, Sudhanva Gondhalekar (39), and Shrikant Pangarkar in the wake of raids in Palghar, Pune and Jalna districts.

Last Saturday, the ATS arrested Avinash Pawar from Ghatkopar in Mumbai in connection with the explosives case.