Narendra Dabholkar murder case: Bombay High Court grants 4 weeks more to CBI to file conclusion report

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Monday granted the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) four more weeks to file a report on the conclusion of its probe into the 2013 killing of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar.

The central agency had informed the HC on January 30 that its probe in the case was complete and that the investigating officer had sent a closure report to its headquarters for approval. 

Time needed to approve the conclusion report

During the hearing on Monday, CBI ‘s advocate Sandesh Patil informed the HC that some more time was required to get a clearer picture on the approval for the conclusion report.

A division bench of Justices Ajey Gadkari and PD Naik accepted the statement and granted the agency four weeks time to decide on the probe conclusion report.

Dabholkar, 67, the founder of the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti, an anti-superstition organisation, was shot dead by two motorcycle-borne assailants while on a morning walk in Pune on August 20, 2013. He was shot by persons allegedly linked to the radical outfit Sanatan Sanstha.

The CBI, which took over the case from Pune city police in 2014, has chargesheeted five accused in the case — Tawade, Sachin Andure, Sharad Kalaskar, Vikram Bhave and advocate Sanjeev Punalekar.

The trial in the case began in October 2021.