A fortnight after noted Communist leader and activist Govind Pansare was fatally gunned down outside his home in Kolhapur district, the Maharashtra police on Wednesday expressed progress in the case by formally announcing that they had prepared sketches of the suspected assailants.
Speaking to the press in Kolhapur, State Director-General of Police Sanjeev Dayal said that the sketches would soon be shown to Pansare’s wife, Uma soon.
Ms. Uma Pansare, who survived the murderous attack, was grievously wounded in the head and was discharged from Kolhapur’s Aster Aadhar Hospital on Wednesday.
In a traumatic experience, she had only just learnt of her husband’s death after relatives decided to gently break the news of Mr. Pansare’s passing to her.
In the light of the fact that Ms. Pansare, the prime eyewitness in the February 16 shooting, has yet to give her version of the events besides identifying the sketches, a robust security detail had been posted outside the Pansare’s home in the city’s Sagar Mala locality, informed Mr. Dayal.
Twenty five teams were on the trail of the shooters while the bounty on Pansare’s killers has been quintupled from Rs. 5 lakh to Rs. 25 lakh. Different investigation agencies are thoroughly combing Pune, Kolhapur and the Konkan region for clues, said Mr. Dayal.
“We urge more people who may have had any connect with the killers prior to the shooting to come and give us information. We guarantee their anonymity,” Mr. Dayal said, informing that while the ballistic report, that had not come in yet, would yield further clues to aid the investigation.
He further said that the State police had no issues to Pansare’s kin seeking either a CBI or a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into the killing.
Soon after the shooting, a public interest litigation (PIL) was filed by activist Ketan Tirodkar seeking a CBI probe into the affair.
However, on Tuesday, Pansare’s daughter Smita and his daughter-in-law, Megha, have sought an intervention in the PIL seeking instead the constitution of a SIT whose progress would be monitored by the Bombay High Court on grounds that the CBI had comprehensively failed to achieve any breakthrough in the investigation of slain rationalist Dr. Narendra Dabholkar.
