Mumbai: Over the past decade, four noted rationalists were murdered in different cities under strikingly similar circumstances, with overlapping suspects linked to Hindu fundamentalist organisations. These cases are being investigated by separate agencies, evidently without proper coordination, despite obvious and overarching Hindutva link between these crimes. Now, a special trial court in Kolhapur of Maharashtra, while cancelling the bail of the ‘main conspirator’ and ‘mastermind’ of the murders, has emphasised that the murders of Govind Pansare, Gauri Lankesh, Dr. Narendra Dabholkar, and Professor M.M. Kalburgi “are all interconnected”.
The special court on July 16 cancelled the bail of the prime suspect Virendrasinh Sharadchandra Tawade in the murder case of Communist Party of India (CPI) leader Pansare in 2015. Tawade, a practicing doctor until 2000, is believed to have given up his practice to be fully involved with the radical Hindutva organisation Sanatan Sanstha and its associated body, Hindu Janjagruti Samiti.
Dabholkar, Pansare…a pattern
Tawade has been on bail since January 2018. In May this year, a special CBI court in Pune handling the murder of another rationalist, Dr. Narendra Dabholkar, acquitted Tawade from the case. It said the acquittal came only because the prosecuting agency, the CBI, had carried out a “shoddy investigation.”
After his release on bail, the Anti-Terrorism Squad moved the Bombay high court. But when the investigation brought to light new evidence against him, the state agency withdrew the application and moved the trial court again. Sessions judge Shailendra Tambe meticulously reviewed witnesses’ statements, the recent judgment in Dabholkar’s assassination case, and the charges levelled against Tawade, before directing the ATS to take him back into custody over six years after his release.
This is a significant development considering Tawade’s acquittal in Dabholkar’s case came through only because the CBI failed to conduct a thorough investigation, despite clear leads from many prime witnesses.
Among other things, in the Pansare murder case the ATS has relied on the statement of one important witness, Sanjay Arun Sadvilkar. The investigation revealed that Sadvilkar, who was earlier associated with Sanatan Sanstha and was a close associate of Tawade, was approached by Tawade over the arrangement of accommodations for the two absconding accused and Pansare’s assailants, Sarang Akolkar and Vinay Pawar. Sadvilkar’s statement proved crucial in Dabholkar’s murder trial too.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.
