Govind Pansare, who was shot on February 16, 2015
| Photo Credit: Today News 24
The Bombay High Court on February 1 dismissed the plea by the accused in rationalist Govind Pansare’s murder in 2015 and said they have no say in the matter where the High Court is monitoring the investigation and trial in the case.
A division bench of Justices A.S. Gadkari and P.D. Naik was hearing a plea filed by the accused challenging the monitoring of the probe and trial by the High Court in the case. According to the accused, this was delaying the trial against them.
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The bench dismissed their plea and said, “There is a difference between the rights of an accused when it comes to further investigation. We have not stayed the trial, the trial is ongoing. As far as further investigation is concerned, you have no say. After filing the chargesheet, you have been arraigned as an accused. Your right to ask for a speedy trial is different from the right to have a say in further investigation of the case. As of today, nothing adverse has happened to you except that you are facing trial,” the Court said.
Advocate Subhash Jha, appearing for the accused, contended they are facing difficulties since the trial has been stalled for more than seven years because of the orders passed by the High Court while monitoring the case.
The Court however said, “You do not have a legal right to be heard, at least at this stage. What we are monitoring is the further investigation, the investigation towards the two absconding accused,” the Court said.
On August 3, another bench of the High Court transferred the probe from the Maharashtra government’s special investigation team to Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) after the family urged the court to do so.
As per orders from the Court, the progress made by the agency was submitted to Court today. The Court expressed its satisfaction and directed the ATS’s counsel to submit the next progress report in four weeks.
