The Bombay High Court on Wednesday transferred the investigation into the death of rationalist Govind Pansare to the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS).
A Division Bench of Justices Revati Mohite-dere and V.G. Bisht was hearing an application filed by the family members of Pansare through advocate Abhay Nevgi seeking the transfer of the probe from the Maharashtra government’s Special Investigation Team to the ATS.
Senior advocate Ashok Mundargi appearing for the State government told the court, “We are agreeable to either of the arrangements. ATS can be appointed and for continuation, some officers can be a part of it; or the Special Investigation Team can continue the probe and some ATS officers can be included. But in my opinion it will be better if ATS is handed over the probe.”
The court then asked about the ATS officer who would be supervising the probe.
Mr. Mundargi said an officer of the Additional Director General of Police was the chief of the ATS, but the officer would take a call on the officers who would form part of the investigating team.
On February 16, 2015, the 82-year-old author of Shivaji’s biography and Communist Party of India (CPI) leader, Pansare was shot five times when he was returning home from a morning walk with his wife Uma who was also shot at and died on February 20.
Mr. Nevgi had previously informed the court that there was a larger conspiracy and a common plot in the murders of rationalists Narendra Dabholkar (shot on August 20, 2013 in Pune), M.M. Kalburgi (shot on August 30, 2015 in Dharwad, Karnataka), journalist Gauri Lankesh (September 5, 2017 in Bengaluru) and Pansare. The plea mentioned that it had been seven years since Pansare was murdered and the trial had not yet commenced, therefore it will be easy to transfer the probe to another agency.
The accused in the case Virendra Tawde and Sameer Gaikwad were arrested but are out on bail. The other accused, Sachin Andure, Amit Baddi and Ganesh Miskin, are in jail. Amol Kale and Amit Degwekar, both also the accused in Lankesh’s murder, have also been arrested in the Pansare case. However, Sarang Akolkar and Vinay Pawar, believed to be the main shooters, are still absconding in the case. All the accused are alleged to be members of the Sanatan Sanstha, a Hindu extremist group.
