Rationalist murders: CBI to send forensic proofs to UK this week

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will send forensic samples this week to UK’s Scotland Yard for ballistic experts to verify whether or not a single firearm was used to kill three rationalists in Maharashtra and Karnataka, allegedly, by a right-wing Hindu group.

The group is under the scanner for links to the murder of Pune’s Narendra Dabholkar and Kolhapur’s Govind Pansare. The CBI was investigating only the 2013 murder of Dabholkar, but the subsequent murder of Pansare and Kannada scholar M.M. Kalburgi in Karnataka came under its scanner due to key similarities in the three crimes. Empty cartridges of a 7.65-mm country-made firearm were recovered from the sites where Dabholkar and Pansare were shot dead by motorbike-borne men in the early hours, according to a CBI source.

“The ballistic samples being sent to Scotland Yard this week include empty shells and cartridges of a 7.65-mm calibre country-made firearm that were recovered from the sites where Dabholkar and Pansare had been killed,” said the source. “Scotland Yard’s ballistic opinion is being sought to determine if a single weapon was used in the two murders,” said the source.

The dispatch of the samples has been fraught with delays since the agency received court permissions for the move around three months ago. “The delay was caused due to the fact that sanctions from multiple government agencies were to be taken as it involves the dispatch of cartridges,” said the source.

The right-wing group Sanatan Sanstha is under the scanner of the CBI and the police teams probing the Pansare and Kalburgi cases. An alleged group activist was earlier arrested by the SIT in the Pansare case while in June, a Pune court had granted the custody of a man arrested by the CBI in the Dabholkar case to Maharashtra police’s special investigation team (SIT) probing the Pansare murder to probe his involvement. The group and the arrested accused have denied any link to the three murders.

Once Scotland Yard sends its findings to the CBI, the latter will submit its final ballistic report to the courts. The Bombay high court had handed over the Dahbolkar case to the CBI in 2014 from the Maharashtra police.

If a common link is established among the three cases, a CBI probe in the other two cases could be considered as well, said another agency source.