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Investigate if murders of 4 rationalists linked: Supreme Court to CBI
CBI also told the court that its investigations were carried out “keeping in view the possibility of a larger conspiracy.”
The Supreme Court on Friday gave Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) eight weeks to investigate whether there was a larger conspiracy behind the murder of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar after his children alleged that a “common thread” exists between his killing and those of three other public personalities, activist Govind Pansare, Kannada poet MM Kalburgi and journalist Gauri Lankesh.
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A bench of justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Sudhanshu Dhulia passed the order while hearing a petition filed by Mukta and Hamid Dabholkar who approached the top court against an April 18 order of the Bombay high court refusing any further monitoring of CBI’s investigation into their father’s murder. They had urged the high court to consider a larger conspiracy behind the murder as a similar modus operandi was adopted in killing three others, with all murders being carried out in a span of four years.
“The petitioners have stated about the larger conspiracy. The accused in this case are facing trial. We want to know, according to you, is there no common thread with the other murders. Please look into it as that is what we want to know,” the apex court told CBI.
Additional solicitor general (ASG) Aishwarya Bhati who appeared for CBI told the court that all the charge sheets in the other cases are yet to be examined. She added that in the case of the Dabholkar murder, however, the investigation is complete and a charge sheet was filed on May 31 with 20 witnesses already examined during the trial.
To be sure, there are enough links between the cases, even by the agency’s own admission, although it has not filed any charges over a larger conspiracy.
An affidavit filed by CBI added: “The murder of Govind Pansare is a connected case because of common conspirators. However, time and facts of the case are different.” The agency further stated that monitoring of investigation into Pansare’s death will have no impact in the Dabholkar trial.
CBI also told the court that its investigations were carried out “keeping in view the possibility of a larger conspiracy.”
The petitioners pointed to more links.
Senior advocate Anand Grover who appeared for the Dabholkar children pointed to the presence of a 2018 charge sheet where the Maharashtra anti-terrorist squad (ATS) recovered a large haul of ammunition and weapons from Nalasopara in Mumbai. Grover said, “The accused in the Nalasopara explosive seizure case are the accused in the Dabholkar, Kalburgi and Lankesh case.”
The court permitted the petitioners to produce the Nalasopara chargesheet in the ongoing proceedings and said, “The petitioners seek time to file certain documents to facilitate examination of larger conspiracy. CBI is granted further time to examine this aspect. List after eight weeks.”
In their petition filed through advocate Krishan Kumar, the Dabholkars said: “In the investigation by SIT, Karnataka of the murder of Gauri Lankesh, a diary was seized from one accused (Amol Kale) which revealed that 34 persons including the petitioners were on the hit list.”
Dabholkar, a rationalist, was shot dead in Pune in 2013. Political activist Govind Pansare was killed in Kolhapur in 2015. The same year, Kannada scholar MM Kalburgi was murdered in Karnataka. In 2017, Gauri Lankesh, an outspoken critic of Hindutva, was murdered outside her house in Bengaluru
This is not the first time the court has sought to explore connections between the murders. In 2018, the top court while dealing with a petition filed by Kalburgi’s wife seeking independent probe by special investigation team (SIT) was told by the Karnataka police that there was a common link between the deaths of Kalburgi and Lankesh. The Pansare murder was probed by Maharashtra police while CBI took over Dabholkar murder probe in 2014.
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CBI has invoked provisions under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in the Dabholkar murder case as the action of the accused was intended to create terror in society. After taking over the case, CBI has filed three charge sheets naming Virendrasinh Tavade as the mastermind behind the killing of Dabholkar. The agency subsequently arrested Sachin Andure and Sharad Kalaskar as the people who executed the killing. Subsequently, the agency named two others advocate Sanjiv Punalekar and his assistant Vikram Vinay Bhave in connection with the conspiracy to murder.
