'Cops should assist CBI in Dabholkar murder case'

PUNE: Expressing "deep regret" that Narendra Dabholkar's assailants were still at large, state home minister R R Patil on Wednesday appealed to Pune police to continue the probe even as the investigation has been officially handed to the CBI.
The home minister said the local police "must assist" the central agency in such sensitive issues and "should not sit idle".
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a function organised by the police to return stolen properties to its rightful owners at their headquarters in Shivajinagar, Patil admitted that there has been a delay in cracking the Dabholkar murder case, but expressed confidence that the killers would be arrested soon.
Dabholkar was shot dead by two motorcycle-borne assailants on the Vitthal Ramji Shinde bridge near Balgandharva Rang Mandir on August 20, 2013.
The Pune crime branch, which had initially investigated the case, had arrested arms dealer Manish Nagori and aide Vikas Khandewal on charges of entering into a criminal conspiracy with some unknown persons in the murder case. The duo got bail because the crime branch failed to file chargesheet against them within 90 days. The Bombay high court later
transferred the case to the CBI on finding that the police had not made any headway in the investigations.
On the arrest of the Bhelke couple, an alleged urban operative of the banned CPI(Maoist), the minister said such people shift their base to places like Pune for employment and stay at distant places whenever there are problems in districts such as Gadchiroli and Chandrapur, from where they are originally from.
The Pune unit of the state anti-terrorism squad (ATS) on Tuesday arrested Kanchan Nanaware (31), wife of Arun Bhelke, an alleged urban operative of the banned CPI (Maoist) group, who was nabbed on Sunday night. He lauded the ATS, Pune for arresting the couple.
Patil condemned the attack on the CPI(M) office in Narayan Peth and said the police would arrest the culprits soon. On the seat-sharing arrangements between the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) for the assembly elections, he said the Congress had earlier claimed more seats for contesting the polls on the grounds that they had more MPs, but now the NCP has more seats. He said the issue of seat-sharing would be taken by party higher ups.
On the Narendra Modi government completing 100 days, he claimed that the performance of the government was "a major disappointment" as it was functioning like "a dictatorship". On Modi addressing school students on Teacher's Day live on TV, he said the PM was free to deliver the speech but it should be ensured that schools in the state have basic facilities like classrooms, computer and internet.