A court in Maharashtra’s Pune on Monday granted the Central Bureau of Investigation custody of Hindutva activist Sharad Kalaskar till September 15 in connection with the murder of anti-superstition activist Narendra Dabholkar, ANI reported.

The court, however, rejected the agency’s demand for custody of the two other accused – Amit Digvekar and Rajesh Bangera – and instead sent them to magisterial custody. Digvekar and Bangera were arrested by Karnataka Police’s Special Investigation Team in connection with the murder of Gauri Lankesh in September 2017.

While requesting for the extension of their custody, the CBI told the court that Digvekar was in contact with Virendra Tawde and Amol Kale, who are also accused in the Dabholkar murder case. The CBI claimed that they could trace other conspirators through Bangera and Digvekar, DNA reported.

CBI prosecutor Vijaykumar Dhakne said that Digvekar played a role in hatching the conspiracy and Bangera was a weapons trainer, reported The Indian Express. After going through the remand application filed by the CBI and the case diary of the investigation, judge Sayyed observed that there has been little progress in the inquiry.

The CBI told the court that Bangera had trained the shooters in the case at six different locations in Maharashtra and Karnataka. Digvekar and Bangera will be lodged in Yerawada central jail and will be taken back to judicial custody in Karnataka, from where the CBI had taken their remand.

Kalaskar is one of three people accused of being part of a conspiracy to carry out blasts across Maharashtra. The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad had arrested him on August 10.

On September 2, the CBI said that three accused in the murder of Lankesh were also involved in the conspiracy to kill Dabholkar