A special court in Maharashtra on Friday convicted two men for the murder of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar in Pune but acquitted three others, almost 11 years after the grisly crime shocked the country and sparked suspicions of a wider conspiracy targeting leftist activists, journalists and atheists.
Sachin Andure and Sharad Kalaskar, who allegedly shot Dabholkar while he was on a morning walk in Pune on 20 August 2013, were sentenced to life imprisonment. The three other accused, Virendrasinh Tawade, Sanjiv Punalekar and Vikram Bhave, were acquitted for lack of evidence, said additional sessions judge PP Jadhav.
The murder of Dabholkar, a well-known anti-superstition crusader, was the first in a chain of similar killings of three other rationalists and activists: Communist Party of India leader Govind Pansare in Kolhapur in February 2015, Kannada-language scholar MM Kalburgi in Dharwad in August 2015, and journalist Gauri Lankesh in Bengaluru in September 2017.
But the acquittal of the men the investigators charged as the masterminds of the murder deals a blow to the investigation into the alleged wider conspiracy hatched by right-wing groups to target the four victims.
The judge said though Tawade was charged as the conspirator in the case and there was ample scope for suspicion, the prosecution failed to convert the suspicion into evidence, which is why he was acquitted of all charges. “In the case of Bhave and Punalekar, even if there is scope for suspicion, there is no evidence, and therefore, both have been acquitted of all charges for want of evidence,” the judge said
{{/usCountry}}The judge said though Tawade was charged as the conspirator in the case and there was ample scope for suspicion, the prosecution failed to convert the suspicion into evidence, which is why he was acquitted of all charges. “In the case of Bhave and Punalekar, even if there is scope for suspicion, there is no evidence, and therefore, both have been acquitted of all charges for want of evidence,” the judge said
{{/usCountry}}The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which took over the case in 2014, had claimed that a long-standing enmity between Dabholkar – whose organisation Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (committee for eradication of superstition, Maharashtra) often targeted fringe groups – and the right-wing Sanatan Sanstha was the motive behind the murder.
All five accused were linked to the Sanstha in CBI’s charge sheet.
However, after the verdict was announced, the Sanatan Sanstha disassociated itself from Andure and Kalaskar, saying they are “Hindutva activists” but have never been involved with the organisation. The group admitted Bhave was a member, and alleged that Virendrasinh Tawade belonged to another right-wing organisation called Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, while Punalekar is an advocate who takes up cases of Hindutva activists.