Pune: A Pune court on Sunday sent lawyer Sanjeev Punalekar, an accused in the murder of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar, in judicial custody till July 6. Additional Sessions Judge (special judge) R M Pande last Thursday granted Punalekar’s custody to the CBI till June 23, after the agency said it recovered some “incriminating documents” from the lawyer’s laptop and that he was required to be questioned about it.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Sunday told the court it does not require any further custody of Punalekar, following which the judge sent the accused in judicial remand till July 6.
The lawyer and his assistant Vikram Bhave were arrested by the CBI May 25. Punalekar was accused of giving advice to Sharad Kalaskar, one of the shooters in the case, to destroy the fire arms used in the commission of the crime. The court earlier remanded both the accused in CBI custody till June 1 and later extended it till June 4.
The court, however, later refused the CBI’s plea to extend their custody to the probe agency and sent Punalekar and Bhave in judicial remand June 4.
Later, Punalekar’s counsel moved a bail application and while the argument on it was underway, the CBI on Thursday sought his custody to question him about some “incriminating documents and information” retrieved from his laptop which was seized by the central agency at the time of his arrest.
Dabholkar was shot dead in Pune August 20, 2013.