A Kolhapur court Monday framed charges against 10 accused in the 2015 murder of veteran activist and Community Party of India (CPI) leader Govind Pansare, marking the beginning of the trial in the case. All 10 accused have pleaded not guilty in the case.
Motorcycle-borne assailants had shot at Pansare and his wife Uma near their residence at Ideal Society in Kolhapur, when they were returning home from a walk on the morning of February 16 in 2015. Pansare succumbed to his injuries four days later during treatment. His wife recovered from her injuries and was discharged a few weeks later.
The investigation till now has identified 12 accused in the case, of whom two – Sarang Akolkar and Vinay Pawar – have been proclaimed absconding by the court. The remaining 10 accused were produced before the Kolhapur court during the hearing Monday and the charges were framed against them. The investigation has revealed that the accused in the case are linked to a radical outfit, Sanatan Sanstha, and its affiliates.
The charges were framed against the accused under Indian Penal Code sections pertaining to murder, attempt to murder, criminal conspiracy, and provisions of the Arms Act. The accused against whom charges have been framed were identified as Sameer Gaikwad, Virendrasinh Tawade, Amol Kale, Vasudev Suryavanshi, Bharat Kurne, Amit Degwekar, Sharad Kalaskar, Sachin Andure, Amit Baddi and Ganesh Miskin.
Of these, Tawade, Kalaskar and Andure are also being tried in the 2013 murder case of anti-superstition activist Dr Narendra Dabholkar. The majority of the accused in the Pansare murder case have also been charged with the August 2015 murder of Kannada scholar MM Kalburgi and the September 2017 murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh.
Advocate Shivaji Rane, the special public prosecutor for the Pansare murder case, said that all the 10 accused were physically present in the court and that all of them have pleaded not guilty. The next hearing in the case is scheduled on January 23.
Dabholkar murder is being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation. A Special Investigation Team of the Maharashtra Criminal Investigation Department (CID) was conducting the probe into the Pansare murder, which has been handed over to the Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad recently. The Karnataka Police, on the other hand, are probing the murders of Kalburgi and Lankesh. All the investigation agencies have said that the murders are closely linked to one another and have the involvement of many common suspects, most of them linked to Sanatan Sanstha.
