The police investigating the murder of Narendra Dabholkar has spotted the two bike-borne assailants in a CCTV grab of Cosmos Bank on Omkareshwar Bridge when they were riding away after committing the murder. However, their faces cannot be identified as the zoom function causes the picture to blur. The Mumbai crime branch, too, is investigating the firearm angle in the murder.
An officer from the Pune crime branch said, “The bank is located at the end of the bridge towards Omkareshwar temple. After the shooting, the two men walked towards their bike parked on the junction and took a left, towards the Shaniwar Peth area. One of the men, who was described by the eyewitness as wearing a cap, can be seen in the footage. However, the camera is of inferior quality and the picture blurs when we zoom in,” the officer said.
On Tuesday morning, at around 7.30 am, when Dabholkar was walking on the bridge towards the Pune Municipal Corporation junction, the two men shot at him from a diagonal angle, killing him on the spot. Four rounds were fired, where one bullet hit the back of his head, one grazed the skull and the other below the underarm. Another live round was also found.
A six-member team from the unit-8 of the Mumbai crime branch, led by senior PI Deepak Phatangare has also reached Pune city to assist with the investigations. “We are probing the forensic angle concerning the firearm used in the crime. The bullets found were of 7.65 mm calibre and fired from an Indian country-made pistol with a standard ‘cassette’ type magazine. We are trying to find out about recent illegal firearm sales in Mumbai through our informants and how the weapon was transported to Pune for the murder,” an officer said. The police also suspects Dabholkar was being watched ever since he had come from Dadar to Pune a day before the crime.
The Mumbai police is also helping with other technical aspects of the investigation, including call data records and preparing the sketches of the accused.
Meanwhile, Abhay Vartak from the Sanathan Sanstha, the organisation suspected of being behind the 69-year-old’s killing, while condemning the murder, said it was being unfairly defamed by the media and denied any role in the crime. “We were only against Dabholkar for criticising the Hindu religion,” said Mr Vartak.
, in a statement.