Why arrest in Dabholkar case was made after 5 years: Kanhaiya

Student leader Kanhaiya Kumar today questioned the delay in the arrest made by the CBI in the 2013 murder case of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar.

The Central Bureau of Investigation last week arrested a man on a tip-off by Maharashtra police, claiming he was one of the two shooters who fired on and killed Dabholkar in Pune in August 2013.

Speaking at the Mumbai Press Club, Kumar asked why it took so long to make the arrest in the case.

"Five years have passed since Dabholkar's death. Why the arrest was not made earlier? Maharashtra police could have made the arrest (instead of tipping off CBI). Police in neighbouring state (Karnataka) arrested killers of (journalist) Gauri Lankesh," he said.

Kumar alleged that the group involved in Lankesh's murder is being protected by the government to "terrorise those who speak or write against it".

He claimed that one of the persons arrested recently by Maharashtra Police for allegedly conspiring to trigger blasts in the state had tried to heckle him when he had addressed a public meeting in Mumbai.

The BJP-led government at the Centre was trying to overthrow "constitutional democracy" and establish "mob-rule", he said.

There was an undeclared emergency in the country, Kumar said, adding that anti-BJP parties should come together with a common minimum programme.

When asked about his own political plans, he said he was already a member of the Communist Party of India (CPI).

"I can not say for sure if I would fight elections...but I may fight if you (media) support," he said.

On the recent attack on his fellow student leader from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Umar Khalid, in Delhi, Kumar said such attacks are aimed at silencing critics and deflect people's attention from real issues like unemployment.