Dabholkar murder case: Kin move SC against Bombay HC decision to discontinue monitoring of case

The Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by Dabholkar’s daughter Mukta and son Hamid was briefly heard by the bench of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah of the apex court Thursday.

Mukta and Hamid, in a plea filed on May 15 through advocate Krishan Kumar, sought continuation of monitoring by the High Court and claimed that the CBI was “yet to track the motorcycle and weapons used in the crime”, and the present case is of extraordinary nature and therefore a monitoring probe may be continued in the same.

Senior advocate Anand Grover appearing for the petitioners on Thursday referred to the CBI’s statement before the High Court that a probe is in progress with respect to two absconding accused and that they had not been apprehended yet. He argued that only part-progress was made in the case but no progress on probe into the larger conspiracy angle was made by the CBI.

However, the apex court bench orally remarked that “the high court cannot monitor investigation to investigation”. Grover submitted that the petitioners were not seeking monitoring of the trial. He submitted that the High Court should supervise till the CBI’s probe is complete.

The top court asked the petitioners to serve copies of their appeal and the High Court order with the CBI. The apex court is likely to hear the SLP on July 10.

A division bench of Justice Ajey S Gadkari and Justice Prakash D Naik of the Bombay High Court had on April 18 passed an order in a plea by Dabholkar’s daughter Mukta, seeking continuation of the High Court monitoring of the case.

Two of the accused in the case had also filed an application, stating that trial in the case had already commenced before a Pune court and further monitoring was not required.

“It is clear that the investigation of the present crime has already been completed and the trial of it is steadily progressing,” the High Court bench had noted.

It had added that as on March 29, the prosecution had already examined 18 out of 32 witnesses in the case. “Even counsel for petitioner submitted that the monitoring of the present crime is necessary only for the purpose of tracing out alleged mastermind behind four murders (of activists and authors Dabholkar, Govind Pansare, Gauri Lankesh and professor MM Kalburgi),” it stated.

The Justice Gadkari-led bench had also referred to the Vineet Naraian case decided by the Supreme Court where it had held that “the task of monitoring… would end the moment a chargesheet was filed in respect of a particular investigation and that the ordinary process of the law would then take over.”

Dabholkar, 67, a prominent anti-superstition activist, was shot dead in Pune on August 20, 2013. The Pune Police, which initially investigated the murder case, handed over the probe to the Central Bureau of Investigation in 2014, following a High Court order.

The High Court began monitoring the probe in August 2015. The trial in the case commenced in September 2021 after charges were framed against all the five accused.