New Delhi: The Bombay high court on Thursday, July 21 asked the Maharashtra government to respond to a plea filed by the family of activist and Communist Party of India (CPI) leader Govind Pansare. The plea has sought the transfer of the probe into his death from a special investigation team (SIT) to the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS).
Pansare was shot on February 16, 2015, near his house in Kolhapur. He died four days later.
The SIT told the court that it needed more time to get instructions and file a status report in the case, an Indian Express report said, adding that the officer in charge of the SIT investigation was unwell.
“This can’t go on endlessly. A decision has to be taken at the earliest. We can’t wait endlessly. We want a decision on this,” the high court said.
The court has granted a week’s time to the SIT to take instructions.
Advocate Abhay Nevagi, representing the applicants, said that the state police were yet to make any breakthrough in the case even after seven years of the killing.
According to Bar and Bench, the application pointed out that there was a larger conspiracy in the murders of Pansare and other activists like Dabholkar, M.M. Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh which ought to be investigated.
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Separately, the Bombay high court has said that it is ready to pass an order to expedite the trial in the murder case of activist Narendra Dabholkar provided witnesses are examined, according to Bar and Bench.
A single-judge bench of Justice Revati Mohite Dere was hearing the bail plea filed by prime accused Virendrasinh Tawade on Thursday, July 21.
“We will expedite the trial. We will have to go by the charge sheet, not by evidence. We are not inclined to hear this application. We will keep it pending. How can we go into evidence while hearing the bail application?” Justice Dere said.
Dabholkar, who headed the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti, was shot dead in Pune on August 20, 2013, allegedly by members of a right-wing extremist group. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is conducting a probe into the case.
During the hearing on Thursday, advocate Hare Krishna Mishra, representing Tawade, told the court that only nine witnesses had been examined so far. He further asked the court to post the matter for hearing next week.
The court, however, asked how much time will be taken to complete the examination of witnesses.
It was informed by the CBI counsel that out of 32 witnesses, eight witnesses had been examined and the ninth witness, who is a key witness, had been partly examined, the report added.