Dabholkar shooter now a suspect in Pansare case

Sanatan activist Vinay Pawar, one of the alleged shooters in Narendra Dabholkar murder, was seen carrying out a recce of the area where Govind Pansare resided, said Special Investigation Team probing the murder of leftist leader

Sanatan activist Vinay Pawar, one of the alleged shooters in Narendra Dabholkar murder, was seen carrying out a recce of the area where Govind Pansare resided, Special Investigation Team probing the murder of leftist leader told local court in Kolhapur. With this, the SIT has made Pawar its third suspect in Pansare case; the other two being Sameer Gaikwad and Virendra Tawade.

Veteran leader Govind Pansare was shot dead at Kolhapur on February 16, 2015. (HT file photo)

Pansare was shot dead on February 16, 2015 in Kolhapur while on his morning walk, accompanied by his wife.

Last week the SIT arrested Tawade, an accused in Dabholkar case, in connection with Pansare murder after the agency found common links between the two murders.

The JMFC court in Kolhapur on Thursday remanded Tawade to eight days’ police custody.

According to SIT, one of the witnesses had seen Pawar in Sagarmala area where Pansare’s residence is located.

“When we showed pictures of Pawar to witness he confirmed that the person he saw near Pansare’s residence was Pawar,” public prosecutor Shivaji Rane told the Judicial Magistrate First Class UB Kalpagar.

On Tuesday, the CBI in its charge sheet stated that Pawar and another Sanatan Sanstha activist Sarang Akolkar shot Dabholkar on August 20, 2013.

The CBI charge sheet read, “The investigation has established through oral and documentary evidence that Virendra Tawade, who harbored enmity and hatred towards Dabholkar owing to the ideological differences between Anti-Superstition Committee and Sanatan Sanstha criminally conspired with Vinay Pawar, Sarang Akolkar and others to murder Dr Narendra Dabholkar…”