20 hours Ago By Swati Deshpande
MUMBAI: Bombay HC on Wednesday granted bail to six accused for the murder of CPI leader Govind Pansare in 2015, including one convicted in the Narendra Dabholkar murder case. Justice Anil Kilor, passing six separate orders on individual pleas, cited incarceration of 5-6 years and the fact that there is "no end of the trial in sight" as grounds for releasing them on bail. Pansare and his wife Uma were shot by two motorcycle-borne assailants near their home in Kolhapur.
The family blamed right-wing Hindutva organisations for his killing. Two of the accused, Sachin Andure and Virendrasinh Tawde, were key suspects in the 2013 murder of rationalist Dabholkar. Andure, convicted as the main shooter, was sentenced to life.
His appeal is pending before HC. He along with Amit Baddi, Ganesh Miskin, Amit Degvekar, Bharat Kurne, and Vasudeo Suryavanshi, were given bail on Wednesday. Suryavanshi is also an accused in the killing of Prof MM Kalburgi, a Kannada scholar strongly opposed to superstitious practices.
Kurne was arrested in the Gauri Lankesh murder case. All four killings were linked to a conspiracy involving radical Hindutva outfits. The judge released all six on bail bonds of Rs 25,000 each with conditions, including not to tamper with evidence or witnesses.
Bail plea of the seventh accused, Tawde, will be decided later as Justice Kilor directed that it "be reheard" by an appropriate bench. Tawde, who was linked to the Sanatan Sanstha, was named by the CBI as a conspirator in the Dabholkar case before he was acquitted. HC also questioned the timing of evidence recorded by police in the case of Andure.
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