Two division benches of the Bombay High Court on Wednesday recused themselves from hearing a petition and an intervention application regarding slain Communist leader and anti-toll activist Govind Pansare who was shot dead by two unidentified assailants in Kolhapur last month.
"Not before me," the division bench of Justices P V Hardas and Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi, said on Wednesday morning after the PIL was mentioned before it. Activist Ketan Tirodkar has sought CBI probe in the matter.
Pansare's family — his daughter and daughter-in-law, have approached the Bombay High Court by filing an intervention application in the PIL. The application has sought SIT probe in the matter, and has requested the court to monitor the investigation.
Later in the day, the PIL and the intervention application were mentioned before the division bench of Justices V K Tahilramani and A K Menon. That bench too recused itself from hearing the matter.
"I have now written to the Registrar's office seeking allocation of new bench for hearing of this matter," Ketan Tirodkar told The Hindu .
Pansare's daughter Smita and daughter-in-law Megha Pansare had, on Tuesday, filed an application through advocate Sandesh Shukla. They had sought formation of special investigation teams to probe the killing. The probe should be monitored by the Bombay High Court, the intervention application had sought.
The PIL, filed by Mr Tirodkar, has sought that the probe of the killing of the anti-toll activist be handed over to the CBI in the initial stage itself, so that crucial evidence is not lost.
Drawing on the similarities between the killing of renowned rationalist Narendra Dabholkar in Pune two years ago, and Pansare's killing, the petition has said that any delay in handing over the case to CBI will cause loss to the probe.
"In both the cases, there are two bike-borne assailants waiting for their victims to finish their morning walk, in both the cases, the CCTV footage is unclear," the petition has said.
