The Supreme Court has sought Maharashtra’s reply on a plea by Govind Pansare’s daughter and daughter-in-law challenging the Bombay High Court order that ended monitoring of the 2015 murder probe. The petitioners argue the ATS has made “no substantial progress” and a “deeper and larger conspiracy” remains unexplored.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court has asked the Maharashtra government to reply to a petition filed against a Bombay High Court order, which had said that further monitoring of the investigation into the 2015 murder of rationalist Govind Pansare was not required.
A bench of Justices M M Sundresh and N Kotiswar Singh passed this order on September 1 while hearing the plea filed by Pansare’s daughter and daughter-in-law against the High Court’s January 2 ruling. The bench said, “Issue notice.”
Govind Pansare, a leader of the Communist Party of India (CPI) and a well-known writer, along with his wife Uma, was attacked in Kolhapur on February 16, 2015, while on their morning walk. He later died of his injuries on February 20, 2015, while his wife survived.
The case was first investigated by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Maharashtra CID, but in 2022 it was transferred to the state Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS). Since 2016, the Bombay High Court had been monitoring the case, with investigating agencies regularly submitting progress reports.
In their plea before the Supreme Court, the petitioners argued that the High Court failed to notice that an earlier coordinate bench had transferred the case from the SIT to the ATS on August 3, 2022, so that the larger conspiracy behind the murder could be unearthed and the absconding shooters could be caught.
The plea stated,
“Even though ATS made no substantial progress in the investigation since its transfer, the high court disposed of the said writ petition after taking a view that monitoring of investigation is not necessary as the only aspect required to be investigated by ATS is to trace absconding accused.”
It further said that the High Court had wrongly rejected their request for continued judicial monitoring until the ATS completed the probe.
According to them, material already on record from the SIT chargesheets clearly showed that a “deeper and larger conspiracy” existed and that Pansare’s murder was not an isolated act.
ALSO READ: Bengaluru Court Rejects Actress Pavithra Gowda’s Bail Plea in Renukaswamy Murder Case
They also claimed that the killings of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar, Pansare, Kannada scholar M M Kalburgi, and journalist Gauri Lankesh were all interconnected.
The shooters and masterminds had still not been caught, and therefore the monitoring of the probe by the court was necessary.
The petitioners alleged that since the investigation was handed over to the ATS, there has been no effective progress.
In its January 2 order, the Bombay High Court had directed the trial court to speed up the hearings and hold them on a daily basis.
After considering the records and the confidential report of the investigating officer, the High Court observed that the ATS had already looked into the case from all angles.
The High Court noted that except for arresting two absconding accused, there was nothing further left to investigate. It said,
“According to us, only for the purpose of arrest of absconding accused, continuous monitoring of the further investigation by this court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India is not necessary.”
To recall, Dabholkar was shot dead in Pune in August 2013, Kalburgi in August 2015, and Gauri Lankesh in September 2017.
Click Here to Read Previous Reports on Delhi Riots case
