Pune: In what could be a major breakthrough in the murder case of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar, the CBI has recovered a firearm from a creek in neighbouring Thane district of Maharashtra, sources in the probe agency said.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) hired services of a foreign sea explorer agency to search and recover the firearm used in the killing of Dabholkar. The CBI earlier claimed in a Pune court that one of the accused shooter, Sharad Kalaskar, dismantled the firearm
used in the commission of the crime and threw it in a creek in Thane.