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HC grants bail to six accused in Govind Pansare murder case

ByKaruna Nidhi
Jan 30, 2025 07:34 AM IST

A single-judge bench of justice Anil S Kilor allowed the bail pleas, noting that there was no satisfactory progress in the trial and the unlikelihood of it being concluded soon

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Wednesday granted bail to six of the 10 men accused in the 2015 murder of Communist Party of India (CPI) leader and trade union activist Govind Pansare, primarily on the grounds of their prolonged pre-trial incarceration. The six accused—Sachin Andure, Ganesh Miskin, Amit Degvekar, Amit Baddi, Bharat Kurane, and Vasudev Suryavanshi—were arrested between 2018 and 2019.

Sangli, India - Feb. 16, 2015 : Veteran leader Govind Pansare was admitted after two unindentified youngsters shot him at Kolhapur, India, on Monday, February 16, 2015. (Photo by Uday Deolekar )
Sangli, India - Feb. 16, 2015 : Veteran leader Govind Pansare was admitted after two unindentified youngsters shot him at Kolhapur, India, on Monday, February 16, 2015. (Photo by Uday Deolekar )

A single-judge bench of justice Anil S Kilor allowed the bail pleas of the six accused, noting that there was no satisfactory progress in the trial and the unlikelihood of it being concluded soon. The court also said the bail plea of another accused, Dr Virendrasinh Tawade, would be separately heard later.

On February 16, 2015, Pansare and his wife, Uma, were returning home after having breakfast at a local food joint in Kolhapur when they were shot at by two motorbike-borne assailants. While Pansare succumbed to the injuries four days later, his wife survived the shooting.

The two assailants were later identified as Vinay Pawar and Sarang Akolkar, who are still absconding. Ten others allegedly involved in the murder were later arrested. This included Tawade, who was already lodged in Yerawada Central Jail in connection with the 2013 murder of rationalist Dr Narendra Dabholkar in Pune. He was named as an accused in the Pansare murder case in July 2016.

Justice Kilor noted that the prosecution was mainly relying on the statements of witness Sagar Lakhe, recorded three and a half years after the incident, about meetings held in February 2015 wherein a conspiracy was allegedly hatched to kill Pansare. “The whole case of the prosecution is based on circumstantial evidence… and there is no prima facie direct evidence,” the bench said. Lakhe was arrested in 2018 for his alleged involvement in the murder of journalist and activist Gauri Lankesh in Bengaluru in 2017.

The court also noted that the prosecution had examined only 25-30 of the 231 witnesses it had cited. Considering the nature of the evidence available, the allegations, and the six accused men’s prolonged incarceration, the court granted them bail, saying, “There is no satisfactory progress in the trial. Thus, there is no likelihood that trial will be concluded in the near future.”

Advocate Niteen Pradhan, who represented the accused, told Hindustan Times, “This is delayed justice. These people have been rotting in jail for several years.”

Pansare, Dabholkar, Lankesh, and MM Kalburgi, four noted activists and rationalists, were murdered in different cities under similar circumstances between 2013 and 2017. The accused in the murder cases were all linked to Hindu extremist organisations. In July 2024, a special court in Kolhapur said the four murders “are all interconnected”, while cancelling the bail of the alleged mastermind, Tawade.

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