Kolhapur police’s special investigation team has received custody of two men accused of involvement in the 2015 murder of CPI politician and rationalist writer Govind Pansare.

A sessions court in Kolhapur, Maharashtra, has remanded Vasudev Suryavanshi and Bharat Kunare in seven days’ police custody.

Another accused in the case, Amol Kale, who is also the prime suspect in the September 2017 murder of Bangalore journalist Gauri Lankesh, has been sent to judicial custody till December 13.

The Maharashtra anti-terrorism squad had arrested Suryavanshi from Jalgaon in connection with the arms haul at Nalasopara near Mumbai in August this year. The ATS has been granted a 90-day extension to file the chargesheet.

Kurane had been arrested by the Karnataka special investigation team on the charge of providing shelter to the alleged killers of Lankesh in Belagavi, Karnataka.

Suryavanshi and Kurane are accused of destroying the weapon used to kill Pansare and providing shelter to his assailants. Suryavanshi is also suspected to have provided arms training to the killers of Pansare and Lankesh.

“We were seeking custody of these two for some time. By interrogating them we’ll get a clear picture,” a police officer said from Kolhapur.

Four motorbike-borne men had shot at Pansare and his wife Uma in Kolhapur on February 16, 2015. Pansare died at a Mumbai hospital four days later.

In August this year, Bombay High Court pulled up the CBI and the Maharashtra CID for their tardy probe into the murders of Pansare and rationalist Narendra Dabholkar, who was shot dead in Pune on August 20, 2013.

Multiple agencies are probing the murders of Pansare, Dabholkar, Lankesh and rationalist M.M. Kalburgi, shot in Dharwad, Karnataka, in August 2015, as well as the Nalasopara arms haul. Members of the Sangh parivar outfit Sanatan Sanstha are suspected in all these cases.