SC issues notice to State govt over petition by Pansare’s family

Bombay High Court allegedly failed to consider that the shooters are still absconding and the masterminds are not yet identified

MUMBAI: The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Maharashtra government in a special leave petition filed by Smita and Megha Pansare, kin of late CPI leader Govind Pansare, who was shot by two unidentified men at Kolhapur on 16 February 2015.

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 bench comprising justice MM Sundresh and justice N Kotiswar Singh was hearing a petition which contends that the probe has failed to make any meaningful progress since the high court transferred it to the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) from the Special Investigation Team in August 2022.

Earlier this year, Pansare’s daughter and daughter-in-law had filed a petition in the Bombay High Court seeking ATS monitoring by the high court. However, on January 2, the court dismissed the plea, saying oversight was not required since the Maharashtra ATS was tasked with tracing the two absconding accused. In their SLP, the Pansare kin alleged that the Bombay High Court failed to consider that the shooters are still absconding and the masterminds are not yet identified.

Govind Pansare, a senior leader of the Communist Party of India, lawyer, trade unionist, social activist, and author of the book ‘Shivaji Kon Hota?’, was shot along with his wife, Uma, during their walk in Kolhapur on February 16, 2015. He succumbed to his injuries four days later. The family alleges that right-wing groups such as the Sanatan Sanstha and Hindu Janjagruti Samiti had long opposed Pansare for his secular and rationalist ideology.

Investigations into the murders of Dr Narendra Dabholkar (2013), Prof MM Kalburgi (2015), and journalist Gauri Lankesh (2017) have revealed interconnections, with investigators pointing to common weapons, overlapping accused and a larger conspiracy involving extremist networks, the plea claims. A breakthrough came in 2018 with the seizure of explosives in Nalasopara, where alleged Sanatan Sanstha members were found stockpiling arms, it further adds.

Despite multiple charge sheets filed in the interconnected cases, the masterminds remain unidentified, according to the plea. In May 2024, a Pune special court convicted two men for Dabholkar’s murder but observed that the killings were pre-planned by “masterminds” who are yet to be unmasked, while criticising investigative failures of both Pune Police and the CBI. Citing these findings, the Pansare family argues that continued court supervision was essential to ensure that the ATS makes genuine efforts to trace the absconding shooters and expose the larger conspiracy. They maintain that the High Court’s decision to close monitoring proceedings risked derailing justice.