Pune: Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan yesterday said though police had got some clues regarding the murder of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar, they are apparently not concrete enough to lead to any arrests in the case.
“Police have got some clues but they have not led to any arrests so far. Apart from tracing the killers, it is equally important to know the mastermind behind the dastardly act,” Chavan told reporters here.
He said that as many as 19 police teams had been formed to probe the murder of the anti-superstition crusader and trace the assailants.
Chavan said Dabholkar's murder was a “serious incident” as it was planned to silence the voice of an independent thinker.
Stating that Anti-Black Magic and Superstition ordinance promulgated by the state government has become effective from today, the Chief Minister said it would be placed before the winter session of the legislature for enacting a law.
Asked if certain organisations were behind the murder of Dabholkar, Chavan said that it was in the realm of speculation.
It is to be recalled that Chavan had earlier hinted at the possibility of right wing groups being behind the murder of Dabholkar while equating his assassination with that of Mahatma Gandhi.
“Forces who could not tolerate Gandhiji...who could not tolerate his views, silenced his voice...the same way forces who could not stand the power of Narendra Dabholkar's views have silenced his voice by his brutal murder,” he had said a day after the murder of the anti-superstition crusader in Pune on August 20.
Chavan said that he would be meeting family members of Dabholkar in Satara again and offer any assistance they would be needing under the circumstances.
Meanwhile, activists of Bhartiya Yuva Janata Morcha, the youth wing of BJP, led by MLA Pankaja Munde-Palve, staged a protest demanding resignation of Home Minister R R Patil for “failure of law and order situation” in the view of the murder of Dabholkar and gang-rape of a photojournalist in Mumbai.
