Sharad Kalaskar has been sent to police custody till June 18. (Representational)
A special team of the Maharashtra police today arrested right-wing activist Sharad Kalaskar in connection with the killing of veteran Communist leader Govind Pansare, an official said.
A Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the state Crime Investigation Department (CID) arrested Sharad Kalaskar, 25, from Mumbai and produced him before a court in Kolhapur which sent him to police custody till June 18, he said.
Sharad Kalaskar, whose name has figured in a series of high-profile crimes, was arrested by the Maharashtra ATS in the Palghar arms haul case in August last year.
According to the CBI, he was one of two shooters who gunned down rationalist Narendra Dabholkar in Pune in August 2013.
Last year, his statement was recorded in the 2015 Pansare murder case by the SIT as a witness.
Sharad Kalaskar stayed in Kolhapur for more than a week before Mr Pansare's murder in that city, around 400km from Mumbai, in February 2015, he said. His name had also figured in the September 2017 murder of journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh in which he was subsequently arrested, the official said.
He was named as accused number 16 in the Gauri Lankesh case after probe revealed he had played a key role in handling of the weapons used for the murder in Bengaluru, he said.
In the Pansare case, Sharad Kalaskar allegedly dismantled the weapons used in the crime, he said.
During the investigation, the CID-SIT found Sharad Kalaskar's role in the assassination of Govind Pansare and accordingly he was arrested, the official said.