Nagpur: Nearly a decade after architect Eknath Nimgade was shot dead in a high-profile contract killing, his son has approached the Nagpur District and Sessions Court seeking further investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), alleging that the agency’s probe so far failed to uncover the larger conspiracy behind the murder and was aimed at securing closure.The court has issued notice to the CBI and fixed the matter for hearing on July 22.In the petition, Nimgade’s son, Anupam, argues that the investigation remains “fundamentally defective, incomplete and structurally designed to shield other conspirators”. The application contends that while the CBI’s closure report was rejected earlier, the investigation itself was never widened to identify the alleged masterminds, financiers and beneficiaries of the crime.As per the plea, the present prosecution is confined to the alleged shooter and handler. No meaningful investigation was carried out into the financial trail, digital communications among the alleged conspirators, procurement of the murder weapon and call detail records, the plea alleged. It claims these omissions have left the conspiracy angle incomplete and vulnerable during the trial.The petitioner points out that the then Nagpur police commissioner had publicly stated in 2021 that the murder was a contract killing involving a ₹5 crore deal and an advance payment of ₹1.2 crore. However, it alleges that the CBI’s closure report failed to satisfactorily explain why those leads did not culminate in a charge sheet.The application has urged the court to direct the CBI to conduct a focused supplementary investigation into the alleged money trail, financial forensics, electronic evidence, source of the weapon and identification of additional conspirators and beneficiaries.
