The Bombay High Court on Friday pointed out that rationalists Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare were shot dead in 2013 and 2015 respectively and asked the investigating agencies how many more years it would take for the probe to be completed.
A division bench of Justices S.S. Shinde and Manish Pitale was hearing was hearing a bunch of petitions filed by the members of the Pansare and Dabholkar families. The Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) special investigation team is investigating the Dabholkar murder, and the State Crime Investigation Department (CID) is probing the Pansare murder.
Advocate Abhay Nevgi appearing for the families told the court that journalist Gauri Lankesh was murdered in Karnataka in 2017 and the court there has already framed charges against the accused.
To this the bench said, “In sensitive cases like these, citizens of the country deserve to know when the investigation will be over, and the trial will begin. The incidents happened in 2013 and 2015. We are now in 2021. How long will it go on like this?”
The court exclaimed, “We are very disturbed to know that while the trial in a similar incident in Karnataka has already commenced, in Maharashtra, it is not clear when the investigation will be completed even though the cases are of similar nature.”
Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh representing the CBI told the court that the agency has done whatever was possible. However the murder weapon has not been retrieved.
The court was informed that progress reports have been filed by the probe agencies. To which the court said, “We do not doubt the bonafide of the agencies however the cases need to reach their logical conclusion”.
Adjourning the matter to March 30, the bench directed counsels for CBI and CID to take clear and concrete instructions on how much more time the investigation will take.
On February 16, 2015, the 82-year-old author of Shivaji’s biography, Pansare was shot five times after he was returning home in from a morning walk with his wife in Kolhapur and died on February 20.
On August 20, 2013, 67-year-old founder of Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti, anti-superstition crusader Dabholkar was shot dead while he was out on a morning walk in Pune.
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