File photo of anti-superstition activist Narendra Dabholkar, who was killed in 2013
In a sensational twist in the murder of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar, Maharashtra's former Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar has confirmed that a top police officer did resort to voodoo to find the alleged killers.
Pune's then Police Commissioner Gulabrao Pol had been accused in an investigative report of resorting to "planchet," a way of contacting spirits, to trace the killers of Mr Dabholkar, who spent a lifetime fighting superstition.
Mr Pol had been cleared by the state police, but Mr Pawar revealed today that the allegations were not wrong.
"To send the right message, we changed the police commissioner," Mr Pawar, a leader of the Nationalist Congress Party, said.
Mr Dabholkar was shot dead on August 20, 2013 near his home in Pune.
His son Hamid told NDTV that he was shocked to learn that the police chief used black magic in the case.
"Why didn't Ajit Pawar reveal this when he was in power? Why did the police then give Gulabrao the clean chit?" he said, demanding a clarification from the BJP-led government.
Last year, the state's Congress-led government and the police had both denied the media report that said that Mr Pol had sought the help of a retired police constable who dabbled in black magic to solve the murder.
The report claimed that seances were performed in a room in Mr Pol's office, and "Dabholkar's soul" had been invoked for leads.