The Bombay High Court on Wednesday granted bail to six Hindutva men accused in the murder of Communist Party of India (CPI) leader Govind Pansare, reported Bar and Bench.
Sachin Andure, Ganesh Miskin, Amit Degvekar, Amit Baddi, Bharat Kurane, and Vasudev Suryavanshi will be released, citing their five or six years of incarceration, the presence of over 250 witnesses in the case, and the trial’s slow progress.
The court, with Justice Anil Kilor granting the bail, observed that all the accused, arrested in 2018 and 2019, have been incarcerated for a long time with little to no progress in the trial. Of the 231 witnesses listed, only about 25 to 30 have been examined, leading the court to conclude that the trial “would not be concluded in the near future.”
“If we see the progress of the trial, it is evident that there is no satisfactory progress in the trial, which further shows that there is no end of the trial in sight,” reads the order.
The court rejected the objection raised by Megha Pansare, daughter of the deceased Govind Pansare, to the bail.
All six shall be released on furnishing a personal recognizance bond of ₹25,000 with one solvent surety of the same amount.
They are also required to appear at the Rajarampuri Police Station in Kolhapur on the 1st and 16th of each month, between 10 a.m. and 12 noon, until the conclusion of the trial. This obligation does not apply on the date of the trial for this case or any other pending cases.
Hindu extremists shot Pansare near his house in Kolhapur in February 2015, and he succumbed to his injuries five days later.
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