The special investigation team (SIT) probing the murder of veteran Communist leader Govind Pansare filed a charge sheet at a local court in Kolhapur on Monday against >prime suspect Sameer Gaikwad , an activist of the fringe right-wing outfit Sanatan Sanstha.
The >arrest has brought the Sanstha’s activities under the scanner in Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra, especially after the eerily similar >killing of scholar-thinker M.M. Kalburgi outside his home in Dharwad on August 30.
According to procedure, the police have to file the chargesheet against the accused within 90 days of his arrest.
There were strong doubts whether the chargesheet would be filed in this case since the SIT’s extensive investigations across two States had failed to unearth concrete evidence. However, according to sources, the Inspector-General of Kolhapur had instructed the police to begin drawing up the chargesheet against Gaikwad late last month.
While investigative agencies have been tight-lipped, the voluminous chargesheet details the interrogation of more than 75 witnesses, including Gaikwad’s friends and relatives. It also details his mobile phone conversations with a female friend and the items seized from his home at the time of his arrest.
It may be recalled that in the case of the murder of rationalist Dr. Narendra Dabholkar, the Pune police had eventually withdrawn charges against suspects Manish Nagori and Vilas Khandelwal after they failed to gather substantial evidence.
Mr. Pansare, along with his wife Uma, was >repeatedly shot at from point-blank range on February 16 this year by two motorcycle-borne assailants as he was returning from his morning stroll. He later >succumbed to his wounds at Mumbai’s Breach Candy hospital.
