Seizure of arms in Aurangabad: police remand for accused

Three men, from whom a pistol was allegedly seized by the CBI which is probing the murder case of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar, were remanded to police custody for two days by a court in Aurangabad, Maharashtra.

Aurangabad police yesterday registered a case for illegal possession of weapons against Ajinkya Surle (19), Shubham Surle (20) and Rohit Rege (23) under the Arms Act.

They were produced before a magistrate's court this afternoon, and the court sent them to police custody for two days, said an official from the City Chowk Police Station.

"We will question them from where they got these weapons and what was the motive for acquiring them," the official said.

The CBI last week arrested Sachin Andure, who hailed from Aurangabad. The agency claimed he was one of the shooters who fired on Dabholkar, a renowned anti-superstition activist, in Pune in August 2013.

Yesterday, the CBI conducted searches at the premises of Andure's brothers-in-law Ajinkya and Shubham Surle, and his friend Rohit Rege, and recovered a 7.65 mm pistol, three live cartridges, a sword and a chopper. The agency questioned them, and later filed a complaint about recovery of weapons with local police.

A CBI official had said that it would probe if the pistol had been used in Dabholkar's killing and send it to a forensic science lab for ballistic report.