SIT ties Govind Pansare killing with Hemant Karkare death

Mumbai: The Maharashtra police’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) in its supplementary chargesheet in the case involving the February 2015 murder of CPI leader Govind Pansare in Kolhapur indicated that the trigger for the crime was allegedly his close involvement in a lecture held there in December 2014, titled ‘Who killed Karkare?” 

The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief and senior IPS officer Hemant Karkare was killed, along with two other senior police officers, in the 26/11 attacks of 2008. He was killed in an encounter with suicide attackers Ajmal Kasab and Ismail Khan, two of the 10-man Lashkar –e-Taiba (LeT) team that carried them out after arriving from near Karachi via sea. Subsequently, there were speculations alleging that Karkare’s killing could have been stage-managed by intelligence agencies as the ATS, led by him, had detected the role of a right-wing Hindu outfit in orchestrating the Malegaon September 2008 blasts that killed four persons. A former IPS officer had in his book published in 2009 questioned the official version on Karkare’s death. The SIT chargesheet submitted a week ago in Kolhapur, however, did not mention about the book. 

According to the SIT chargesheet, Pansare allegedly said during the lecture held on December 30, 2014 that he would henceforth organise protests at “150 places” in Maharashtra against a right-wing outfit. According to the chargesheet, case accused Dr Virendra Tawade, subsequently arrived in Kolhapur and within “one and a half months” of the December 30, 2014 lecture, he and his associates allegedly targeted Pansare. 

Tawade is named in the chargesheet as an accused for his alleged role in getting reconnaissance conducted on the deceased via two co-accused Vinay Pawar and Sarang Akolkar who are absconding. Tawade was earlier named as an accused in the case involving the murder of Pune’s rationalist Dr Narendra Dabholkar in August 2013 by the CBI as well.   

According to the chargesheet, Pansare’s assailants had allegedly seen him as ‘durjan’ (bad person) due to his forward-looking, progressive outlook and targeted him. Tawade has denied any role in the Pansare and Dabholkar cases. 

Indian forensic laboratories had concluded that Pansare, Dabholkar and Kannada scholar M.M .Kalburgi (killed in August 2015) were killed with an identical weapon, a 7.65 mm pistol/s, but they differed on whether one weapon was used in the crime or more. The CBI, which is probing the Dabholkar case, plans to get Scotland Yard’s expert opinion on the issue by sending to it the ballistic samples and cartridges, used in the three cases. A forensic test conducted in a government-run laboratory in Bengaluru had concluded that two country-made pistols of 7.65 mm calibre were used to target Pansare, of which one each was used in the Dabholkar and Kalburgi cases.

Timeline:

Feb 16, 2015 
Two motorcycle-borne men shot at CPI leader Govind Pansare and his wife Uma.

Feb 20, 2015 
Pansare succumbed to his injuries in a Mumbai Hospital. 

Sept 16, 2015 
SIT arrested the first accused in the case, Sameer Gaikwad.

Dec 14, 2015 
SIT chargesheeted Gaikwad in the case for his alleged role. 

Nov 30, 2016 
SIT chargesheeted Dr Virendra Tawade and two absconding co-accused in the case.