Mumbai: Nearly 11 years after activist Narendra Dabholkar was shot dead, a special Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) court in Pune convicted Friday the duo of Sachin Andure and Sharad Kalaskar, and sentenced them to life imprisonment.
Three others – Dr Virendrasinh Tawade, Sanjeev Punalekar and his aide Vikram Bhave – have been acquitted for the lack of evidence.
Dabholkar’s family has welcomed the court’s decision, but has also demanded that the main conspirator be arrested. They are planning to challenge the acquittal of Tawade, Punalekar and Bhave in this case.
Dabholkar’s murder in August 2013 was the first in a series of killings of activists and intellectual leaders between 2013 and 2017 — communist leader Govind Pansare (February 2015), Kannada scholar M.M. Kalburgi (August 2015), and Bengaluru journalist Gauri Lankesh (September 2017).
Over the years, various investigative agencies have probed these cases. The findings seem to suggest certain similarities and a possibility of a common mastermind across the four murders. However, the Dabholkar case saw some lapses in the initial stages of the investigation.
The Dabholkar case
In 1989, rationalist Dabholkar founded Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (MANS), quitting medical practice after 10 years. The organisation’s key focus was spreading awareness against superstitious practices.
Dabholkar worked towards establishing an anti-superstition legislation, but struggled to have it passed in the Maharashtra assembly for years. He was opposed by several organisations and politicians.
Some groups branded the proposed bill as “anti-Hindu” and one that would curb religious freedom. In July 2008, activists in support of the bill protested against the then Vilasrao Deshmukh-led government’s apparent unwillingness to ratify it, by slapping themselves.
On 20 August 2013, Dabholkar was shot dead at the age of 67, while on his morning walk on a bridge near Omkareshwar temple in Pune, by two bike-borne assailants.
A day after the murder, under the then Chief Minister Prithivraj Chavan, the state government decided to promulgate an anti-black magic ordinance. The Maharashtra Prevention and Eradication of Human Sacrifice and other Inhuman, Evil and Aghori Practices and Black Magic Act was finally passed in December 2013.
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Timeline of the investigation
Over the last decade, various agencies have handled the case. From the Pune Police, it was transferred to the Crime Investigation Department, and subsequently to the Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS), the Special Investigation Team and the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Immediately after the murder, the Pune police arrested arms dealers Manish Nagori and Vilas Khandelwal in connection with this case.
However, after the CBI took over in 2014 following the Bombay High court order, the agency said, in its closure report in 2023, “Nagori and Khandelwal got the default bail as no one identified them during the test identification parade and no chargesheet was filed against them.”
Besides, the three other accused arrested — Amol Kale, Rajesh Bangera and Amit Degvekar — were also released with no chargesheet or evidence against them, the CBI had said.
During the investigation, it was revealed that the accused had links to radical outfit Sanatan Sanstha. After CBI took over, an eye witness — Hindutva activist Sanjay Sadvilkar — gave a statement to the CBI as well as the ATS, where he spoke about his meeting with ENT surgeon Dr. Virendrasinh Tawade, who had allegedly asked him to arrange for bullets, code-named “chocolates”, and make a pistol replica.
Based on Sadvilkar’s statement, in 2016, CBI arrested Tawade, who had alleged ties with the Sanatan Sanstha. The CBI, at the time, had said that Tawade was the mastermind behind the killing. Tawade was also arrested by the Maharashtra Police for the murder of communist leader Govind Pansare, who was shot dead in February 2015 near his residence in Kolhapur.
However, the court released Tawade for lack of evidence, while pronouncing its verdict Friday.
The Sanatan Sanstha is a radical Hindutva outfit seeking the creation of a Hindu rashtra (nation). It has been accused of involvement in the 2008 blasts in Thane and Panvel and the 2009 blast in Goa, as well as said to be involved in the murders of Dabholkar, Govind Pansare and M.M. Kalburgi.
The Sanatan Sanstha had long-standing hatred against Dabholkar and his organisation MANS, according to the CBI.
As the investigation progressed, the CBI, in 2016, named Sanatan Sanstha members Sarang Akolkar and Vinay Pawar as the two people who shot Dabholkar. However, in August 2018, it contradicted its stand and arrested Sachin Prakashrao Andure and Sharad Kalaskar, and told the court that these two had opened fire on Dabkholar.
According to the CBI, Andure and Kalaskar are also accused in the Govind Pansare murder. Not only that, Kaluskar is also linked to the murder of Gauri Lankesh.
Less than a year later, in May 2019, the CBI then arrested Mumbai-based Sanatan Sanstha lawyer Sanjeev Punalekar and his friend Vikram Bhave.
During the investigation, it was alleged that Punalekar advised Kalaskar to destroy the pistol. The CBI said it had recovered a pistol from a creek near Thane, which it believed was used in the murder of Dabholkar. It said that Kalaskar had dismantled the pistol and dumped it in the creek in July 2018. As far as Bhave’s role was concerned, he was allegedly the one who had planned the escape route for the shooters after the crime.
On Friday, however, Tawade, Sanatan lawyer Punalekar and his aide Bhave were all acquitted for lack of evidence.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
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