A local court in Kolhapur on Friday remanded Sachin Andure, named by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to be one of the shooters of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar, and two others to police custody till September 16 in connection with the 2015 murder of Communist leader Govind Pansare.
Earlier on Friday, the special investigation team (SIT) of the Maharashtra Police probing the case took custody of Mr. Andure who is lodged in Pune’s Yerwada Jail, from the CBI. It also took custody from the NIA of Ganesh Miskin and Amit Baddi, who are named in the murders of scholar M.M. Kalburgi and journalist Gauri Lankesh, and in the 2018 Nallasopara arms haul case. The two are lodged in Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai.
The SIT arrested the trio and produced them in court, which remanded them to 10 days in police custody.
With their arrest, 12 people have so far been named in Pansare’s murder, including Sarang Akolkar and Vinay Pawar, two absconding members of the Sanatan Sanstha who agencies had earlier said to have actually shot the Communist leader.
Arguing for the custody of the three accused, government prosecutor Shivajirao Rane said they were present at a meeting presided by radical Hindutva activist and ENT specialist Dr. Virendra Tawde — named as the mastermind in Dabholkar’s murder — in Belagavi a week before the attack on Pansare on February 16, 2015. “The trio had also received arms training in Belagavi,” Mr. Rane said.
Meanwhile, Mr. Andure claimed in court that he had been assaulted and abused by Additional Superintendent of Police Tirupati Kakade, who is the case investigating officer in the Pansare murder, when he was lodged at the Yerwada Jail in connection with Dabholkar’s murder.
Defence counsel Sameer Patwardhan said, “Mr. Andure said he feared a similar recurrence in police custody while being interrogated about the Pansare murder and as a result would be lodging a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission.”
Probe so far
Pansare and his wife, Uma, were repeatedly shot at close range by motorcycle-borne assailants while returning from a morning stroll in Kolhapur’s Sagar Mal locality on February 16, 2015. While Ms. Pansare survived the attack, her husband succumbed to his wounds in Mumbai’s Breach Candy Hospital on February 20, 2015.
Seven months after the crime, the SIT made its first arrest in the form of Sanatan Sanstha activist Sameer Gaikwad, who was picked up from Sangli district. However, following much foot-dragging on part of probe agencies, Mr. Gaikwad was granted bail by a local court in June 2017.
In January last year, the Kolhapur sessions court had also granted conditional bail to Dr. Tawde in connection with his suspected role in Pansare’s killing.
According to probe agencies, Tawde is a crucial link to the murders of both Pansare and Dabholkar. The SIT’s supplementary charge sheet even names Dr. Tawde as the mastermind in the Pansare murder, suspecting him of conducting the reconnaissance before the murder.
In November 2018, Amol Kale, a key accused in the Lankesh murder, was arrested by the SIT in connection with Pansare’s murder. Amit Degwekar, another co-accused in the Lankesh case, too, had been arrested by the SIT.
Then in June this year, the SIT arrested and interrogated Sharad Kalaskar, alleged to be an assailant who shot Dabholkar, in connection with Pansare’s murder.
The SIT had secured Mr. Kalaskar’s custody from the Mumbai Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on grounds of his close affinity to fringe rightwing groups in Kolhapur and Belagavi. According to the SIT, Mr. Kalaskar had manufactured firearms in Kolhapur and Belagavi and had a key role in the conspiratorial meetings held in Belagavi to murder Pansare.
The Mumbai ATS had first arrested Mr. Kalaskar along with fringe rightwing activist Vaibhav Raut from Nallasopara in Mumbai, and Sudhanwa Gondhalekar from Pune on August 10 last year for allegedly planning disruptive activities in the State.
Investigating agencies have alleged that Mr. Kalaskar was an expert in arms manufacturing and was part of the wider conspiracy that links the murders of other rationalist-activists, Pansare and Lankesh.
Motorcycle-borne assailants had killed Dabholkar on August 20, 2013 with a 7.65-mm country-made pistol when he was taking his morning stroll on the Omkareshwar Bridge in Pune. The same modus operandi was used in the murders of Pansare, Kalburgi and Lankesh.
