The State Intelligence Department (SID) has accorded 'X' category security to Megha Pansare, Hamid Dabholkar and his sister, activist Mukta Dabholkar — kin of slain rationalists Govind Pansare and Narendra Dabholkar — after a diary obtained from one of the suspects in the Gauri Lankesh murder allegedly mentioned the three as possible targets of a radical Hindutva outfit.
According to sources, the SID, concerned over the findings of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing Lankesh’s killing decided to provide round-the-clock security to the three subjects by assigning bodyguards from the department’s Special Protection Unit (SPU).
In June, the Karnataka SIT, probing the Gauri Lankesh case, had chanced upon a diary which allegedly contained a ‘hit-list’ of prominent persons – progressives and secular thinkers — who were vocal critics of radical Hindutva ideas.
The diary is said to belong to Amol Kale, one of the suspects in Lankesh’s murder, who was picked up by the Karnataka police from Pune’s Pimpri-Chinchwad area in May. Kale’s diary had theatre luminary Girish Karnad, noted writer-politician B T Lalitha Naik and pontiff Veerabhadra Channamalla Swamy of Nidumamidi Mutt among others as prime targets.
Last month, Krishna Prakash, Spl. IG, (Protection & VIP Security) of the SID had informed Dr. Pansare, along with Dr. Hamid Dabholkar and Mukta Dabholkar, of a perceived threat to their lives as their names had figured in the diary.
Accordingly, since mid-July, a bodyguard from the department’s Special Protection Unit (SPU) has been assigned to each of them to provide round-the-clock security.
“Earlier, a constable from the local [Rajarampuri] police station used to act as security. However, in view of the increased threat perception, the SID has now provided us with a highly-trained SPU security man for 24X7 protection,” said Dr. Pansare said, speaking to The Hindu .
In a bid to nip any untoward incident in the bud, the SID has ensured security to the three activists even during their interstate travels.
“On a recent visit to Kolkata, an SPU person accompanied me all the way from my residence in Kolhapur to the Pune airport from where my scheduled flight to the West Bengal capital was to take off. On disembarking at Kolkata, a man from the SID was waiting to escort me to the event where I was due to speak,” said Dr. Pansare, who is the daughter-in-law of the late Govind Pansare and an assistant professor at Kolhapur’s Shivaji University.
In June this year, a team of the Maharashtra SIT had gone to Karnataka to interrogate arrested Sri Ram Sene activist Parashuram Waghmore, prime accused in the Gauri murder case, in connection with the killing of veteran Communist leader Govind Pansare.
Dr. Narendra Dabholkar was shot by motorcycle-borne assailants in August 2013 in Pune while out on a morning stroll while Govind Pansare, along with his wife Uma, were repeatedly shot at bike-borne assailants in an eerily similar manner outside their Kolhapur residence on February 16, 2015. While Ms. Pansare survived, the communist leader succumbed to his wounds in Mumbai's Breach Candy Hospital on February 20.
Since then, investigation into the murders of both rationalists has been marred by the tardy pace of probe agencies, leading the Bombay High Court earlier this month to pull-up the CBI, the State SIT and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) for their protracted delay in cracking both cases.
