A Mumbai High Court lawyer, implicated in the notorious assassination of renowned Maharashtra doctor Narendra Dabholkar for the weapon disposal, has been granted bail by a Pune's special court. On hearing the bail plea last Friday, Justice RM Pandey sanctioned his release on a surety of three thousand, stipulating not to leave the country without court permission and to mark attendance every Monday and Thursday at the CBI Mumbai office for three months.
It is noteworthy that the lawyer, Sanjeev Punalekar, serves as secretary to the legal firm associated with controversial Hindu organization Sanatan Sanstha. He is also the secretary to the Sanstha itself. The CBI arrested him and his assistant Vikram Bhave on May 25th.
The CBI took Punalekar and Bhave into custody on May 26th, alleging in court that Sharad Kalaskar and Sachin Andure, identified shooters in the Dabholkar case, revealed during interrogation they had met Punalekar in his office in June 2018. It was during this meeting that discussions about the assassinations of Dabholkar and Gauri Lankesh took place. Punalekar had advised them to immediately destroy the weapons used in the homicides. Subsequently, Kalaskar destroyed four arms and disposed of them in the Thane Creek, all of which were used in the killings of Dabholkar and Lankesh.
Punalekar's connection surfaced initially during the investigation of Sanatan Sanstha practitioner Prashant Juvekar in 2010 and thereafter in the 2009 Goa blast case. At that time, Punalekar was acquitted for lack of evidence. Recall that Dr. Narendra Dabholkar was fatally shot the morning of August 20, 2013, while on his morning walk.
