This is an archive article published on August 3, 2022

Govind Pansare murder case: Bombay HC transfers probe from SIT to ATS

CPI leader Govind Pansare was shot on February 16, 2015, near his house in Kolhapur and died four days later. On Wednesday, Bombay High Court said that ATS would be assisted by few state CID officers

Pansare was shot on February 16, 2015, near his house in Kolhapur. He died four days later. (File Photo)

4 min readMumbaiAug 3, 2022 01:47 PM IST First published on: Aug 3, 2022 at 01:47 PM IST

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday said it will transfer the investigation into the death of activist and CPI leader Govind Pansare from Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the state Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS).

The court allowed a plea filed by Pansare’s kin seeking transfer of the probe from the SIT and said that the ATS would be assisted by few officers of state CID, the agency that had been investigating the case till date, for continuity.

Pansare was shot at on February 16, 2015, near his house in Kolhapur. He died four days later.

On Monday, the Maharashtra government had told the high court that it has no objection in transferring the probe from SIT to ATS. However, the bench had asked the state government to respond as to whether some officers from ATS can be made part of the SIT instead of starting the probe into the 2015 killing of Pansare from “point zero.”

A division bench of Justice Revati Mohite-Dere and Justice Sharmila Deshmukh passed an order in an application filed by Pansare’s daughter Smita and daughter-in-law Megha, wherein advocate Abhay Nevagi told the court that the state police was yet to make any breakthrough in the case even after seven years.

Nevagi had told the high court that there was a larger conspiracy in the murders of Pansare and other activists, including Dr Narendra Dabholkar, M M Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh, as all the cases are “linked.” He added that since Dabholkar’s trial has commenced, that investigation cannot be transferred, but a probe into Pansare’s death can be transferred to the ATS. Nevagi said the Lankesh and Kalburgi cases probed by Karnataka Police SIT will soon reach their logical conclusion.

Nevagi also said that ATS is an appropriate agency which can take the Pansare case to a logical end as the breakthrough came only when it cracked the Nalasopara case in 2019 and found that the same accused were involved in all four murders.

Nevagi added that there was no dedicated team of officers to probe the Pansare case as five IPS officers were changed in between. He also submitted that Sharad Kalskar and Sachin Andure, who were named as shooters in Dabholkar case, are witnesses in the Pansare case and some accused were also named in the Gauri Lankesh and Kalburgi cases.

Senior advocate Ashok Mundargi, a special counsel for state, had said that Sarang Akolkar and Vinay Pawar are the only two accused specifically named in the Pansare case as shooters and they are not named as accused in other cases. The SIT had submitted, in a sealed cover, the progress report of the probe between March 2021 till August 1, 2022.

Mundargi had further responded, “It is also our case that there is some common thread running in all these cases. We are not opposing the prayer to transfer the probe. We have been ready for trial since last one year…The difficulty is that those two shooters are absconding. Concerted efforts are going on and all investigating agencies, including CBI, NIA and different state police, are after them but they are not found.”

Mundargi had also submitted that if the victim’s relatives are not satisfied with the probe, the state has “no objection” for transfer of probe to ATS, but the new agency will need some time to understand the case.

On Wednesday, Mundargi submitted, “We are agreeable to either of the arrangements. ATS can be appointed and for continuation, some officers of CID can be a part of it; or the SIT can continue the probe and some ATS officers can be included. But in my opinion it will be better if ATS is handed over the probe,” Mundargi submitted, which the court accepted.

Responding to the court’s query as to whether the same ATS officers who probed Nalasopara case can be added to Pansare death case probe, Mundargi said that those officers were no longer part of ATS and were scattered across other divisions of the police. The Court said that it will transfer the probe to ATS and would pass a detailed order on the same.