Narendra Dabholkar Govind Pansare Sachin Andure produced in court. Photo by Nikhil Ghorpade/ BCCL Nationalist Congress Party Prithviraj Chavan Days after the arrest of radical Hindu outfit Sanatan Sanstha member Sachin Andure in the Drmurder case, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has detained three more people in relation with this probe; two from Aurangabad and one from Satara.From one of these persons, CBI officials claim to have recovered a weapon that may have been used in the murders of one of four rationalists over the last few years — Dabholkar,, MM Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh.Five years after Dabholkar’s heinous assassination in Pune, cops finally had a breakthrough with the arrest of Andure, the assailant in the case. The development followed information given by accused Sharad Kalaskar, who had been arrested by the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and had confessed about his involvement. Investigations sped up following the arrest of accused Shrikant Pangarkar from Jalna by the ATS, and since then, the CBI has been conducting searches and raids at various places across the state.In the course of this action, of the trio detained most recently, two are relatives of Andure, and one is his friend. A gun was seized from one of their homes, and some bullets found as well during the search.Speaking about the raids, a CBI official in charge of the investigation verified, “At present, we are making inquiries with these persons, and have not arrested them yet. This is in connection with information obtained from arrested accused. In the raids, we also found one of them in possession of a weapon and bullets. Details are yet to be confirmed, but we suspect this was used in one of the rationalists’ murders.”Meanwhile, activists of the extremist Sanatan Sanstha also organised a protest march in Pune, alleging that the Congress and(NCP) — who have in recent times asserted that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is shielding fundamentalists — are trying to divert the investigation as they are worried a “Hindutvawadi government will come into power in 2019”.The march began at Bajirao Road and ended at Kasba Peth on Tuesday, with around 100-150 followers of Right-wing outfits, including Sanatan Sanstha, taking part.Hindu Janajagruti Sanstha spokesperson Parag Gokhale told the gathering, “While the BJP government has come to power, the administration is still controlled by leaders of the Congress and NCP. Investigating agencies are acting on their directions and diverting attention to Sanatan Sanstha.Within minutes of the Dabholkar murder in 2013, then-chief ministerhad claimed that Right-wing organisations were behind it. The entire probe was misdirected in this way. Due to this, those who murdered Dabholkar didn’t get arrested in time. If the investigation had been done properly, none of the other murders would have taken place.”

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