Panaji, May 28 (IANS): The All India Hindu Convention on Tuesday passed a resolution condemning the arrest of Sanjeev Punalekar, a lawyer associated with the Sanatan Sanstha, in connection with the murder of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar.

Lawyers who participated in the convention, which is currently underway in Goa, also said that the arrest of Punalekar by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), in connection with the Dabholkar probe, would be protested at various bar councils across the country.

Virendra Ichalkaranjikar, President of the Hindu Vidhidnya Parishad, which is a part of the organising body Hindu Janajagruti Parishad, said that while an uproar is being created over the killing of rationalists and left wing thinkers like Dabholkar, Govind Pansare, M.M. Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh, there was very little dialogue about the killings by Maoists in the country.

"Uproar is being created over the killing of Dabholkar, Comrade Pansare, Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh. However, nobody speaks on killings of more than 12,000 innocent citizens by the Communists-sponsored naxals," Ichalkaranjikar said.

He added that the arrest of Punalekar and his assistant Vikram Bhave by CBI officials earlier this week was a conspiracy to "implicate devout Hindus".

Dabholkar, 67, headed the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (MANS). He was gunned down near his residence while on a morning walk in 2013.

Besides Punalekar and Bhave, the CBI has so far arrested a total of five persons in connection with the murder.

Five years after Dabholkar's killing, the CBI made the first breakthrough arrest in August 2018 of the alleged shooters - Sachin Andure from Aurangabad and Sharad Kalaskar from Palghar region in Maharashtra.