Key accused in Govind Pansare murder case, Sameer Gaikwad, dies of suspected cardiac arrest

“Gaikwad died of a suspected cardiac arrest on Tuesday morning. He had been out on bail since 2017 and had filed a discharge application before the court, which was pending,” a senior police officer said.

The case was initially probed by the Rajarampuri police station in Kolhapur and was later transferred to a Special Investigation Team (SIT) under the purview of the additional director general of the Maharashtra CID.

During the course of the investigation, the names of 12 accused were revealed, and the SIT arrested 10 of them. Apart from Gaikwad, the other accused who were arrested included Virendrasinh Tawade, Amol Kale, Vasudev Suryavanshi, Bharat Kurne, Amit Degwekar, Sharad Kalaskar, Sachin Andure, Amit Baddi and Ganesh Miskin. Accused Vinay Pawar and Sarang Akolkar alias Kulkarni have remained absconding. All the accused are allegedly linked to Sanatan Sanstha.

In December 2015, the first chargesheet was filed in the case. Subsequently, four supplementary chargesheets were filed against nine other accused. In January 2023, a Kolhapur court framed charges against 10 accused, marking the beginning of the trial. All 10 accused  pleaded not guilty in the case.