The court said the ATS would be assisted by a few officers of state CID, the agency that had been investigating the case till date, for continuity and the team be constituted at the earliest. (File Photo)Transferring the investigation into the death of activist and CPI leader Govind Pansare from Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the state Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), the Bombay High Court recently said that while there is legitimate expectation by his family and public that the perpetrators of the “ghastly” crime are nabbed, same is the responsibility of investigating machinery which exists to preserve law and order.
While the court passed the order last Wednesday, the detailed order copy was made available later. A division bench of Justice Revati Mohite-Dere and Justice Sharmila Deshmukh observed, “The wait for the family of Comrade Pansare has been long, for almost seven years…This court has been monitoring the investigation since 2016. SIT has been regularly submitting reports with respect to steps taken to nab the shooters. However, till date, they are absconding.”
It went on to note, “In the present case, SIT and ATS, both are part of the Maharashtra Police. The transfer of investigation, even according to the counsel for the applicants (Pansare’s kin) and state government lawyer, will not impede the ongoing trial. We are of the opinion that transfer is necessitated to ATS to enable them to look at the investigation from their angle, as enough and more than sufficient time was given to SIT by this court. It is necessary that investigation be taken to its logical end, failing which, the perpetrators of the crime would be emboldened.”
Pansare was shot on February 16, 2015, near his house in Kolhapur. He died four days later.
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On August 1, the Maharashtra government, through senior advocate Ashok Mundargi, a special counsel for state, had told the High Court that it had no objection in transferring the probe from SIT to ATS. However, the bench had asked the state government to respond as to whether some officers from ATS can be made part of the SIT instead of starting the probe into the killing from “point zero.”
Allowing a plea filed by Pansare’s daughter Smita and daughter-in-law Megha seeking transfer of the probe from the SIT, the court said the ATS would be assisted by a few officers of state CID, the agency that had been investigating the case till date, for continuity and the team be constituted at the earliest. It also asked the SIT and CBI to provide necessary cooperation to Maharashtra ATS in its probe.
Advocate Abhay Nevagi for Pansare’s kin argued that there was a larger conspiracy in the murders of Pansare and other activists, including Dr Narendra Dabholkar, M M Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh, as all the cases are ‘linked’ and said ATS, which probed 2018 Nalasopara arms haul case, is an appropriate agency which can take the Pansare case to its logical end.
The bench posted further hearing to August 20 to record compliance in the constitution of the ATS team, including some SIT officers.
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First published on: 08-08-2022 at 07:56:03 pm