In a major relief for the kin of the slain Communist leader Govind Pansare, the Bombay High Court on Thursday directed the Kolhapur sessions court to defer the framing of charges against the prime accused, Sameer Gaikwad, an activist of the fringe right-wing outfit, the Sanatan Sanstha.
The charges against Gaikwad were due to be framed today i.e. June 10. The High Court took cognisance of the State government’s petition of last month in which the government prosecutor had urged a stay on the framing of charges till the forensic report from Scotland Yard was obtained.
The impending report from London pertains to a bullet and some cartridges recovered in the Pansare murder case that was sent by the Maharashtra government to the United Kingdom for forensic tests last month.
The court’s directive also comes as a welcome breather for the families of rationalist-thinker Narendra Dabholkar and scholar M.M. Kalburgi.
“We have always held that once charges against Gaikwad are framed, the investigations into the three murders will remain incomplete, allowing the real perpetrators to get away. We welcome the High Court’s directive desisiting the Kolhapur Session’s court from framing charges,” said activist Hamid Dabholkar, son of Dabholkar.
Motorcycle-borne assailants had killed Dr. Dabholkar with a 7.65-mm country-made pistol in Pune, while Mr. Pansare, and his wife Uma, were shot at five times from two 7.65-mm country-made weapons. The same modus operandi was used in the murder of scholar-rationalist M.M. Kalburgi, who was chillingly murdered by two unidentified assailants outside his home in Dharwad in Kanataka.
Since Gaikwad’s arrest in Sangli in September last year, the Sanatan Sanstha has come under intense scrutiny from agencies probing the killings, lending credence to the suspicion of a conspiracy in which a group of assailants perpetrated all three murders. The special investigating team (SIT) of the Maharashtra police is investigating the Pansare case, while the CBI is probing the Dabholkar murder case.
As a consequence of Gaikwad’s arrest, the families of the slain rationalists have been assiduously arguing that the progress of the case would be adversely affected if charges were framed against the lone suspect (Gaikwad), leading to a truncated investigation.
Disappointed with the shoddy pace of the investigation, Pansare’s family approached the Bombay High Court against the Kolhapur trial court’s decision to frame charges against the accused [Gaikwad] despite there being no breakthrough in nabbing the probable masterminds of the murder. At the time, in April, the court has refused to intervene in the matter, stating the framing of charges was the prerogative of the Kolhapur Sessions Court.
On May 20, the Kolhapur court quashed the prosecutor’s demand requesting a stay on the framing owing to the impending forensic report. Following this, special government prosecutor, Harshad Nimbalkar had moved the Bombay High Court seeking more time since the investigation agencies were yet to receive the forensic report.
