Government seeks time to send notice to accused in Govind Pansare killing

Mumbai: The state government on Tuesday sought time to send a notice to Samir Gaikwad, who is allegedly involved in the killing of rationalist Govind Pansare, in a petition filed by Pansare’s family in which they have challenged his release on bail. The Kolhapur sessions court had granted conditional bail to Gaikwad in the month of June.

“On Tuesday, when the matter came up for hearing, Justice T.V. Nalwade came to know that the state government had not served notice to Gaikwad. The court then asked the state to serve notice and kept the matter on August 27 for further hearing,” said advocate Sanjeev Punalikar.

Some unidentified persons shot at Pansare while he was taking his morning walk with his wife in Kolhapur on February 16, 2015. While his wife survived, the veteran CPI leader died in a Mumbai hospital four days later. Gaikwad was arrested in September 2015 for his alleged involvement in the matter. The state government formed a Special Investigation Team of the CID to probe the murder.

Pansare’s family members, in their application, said that the sessions court — while granting bail in matters involving serious crime — must consider several factors like “nature and severity of punishment in case of conviction, apprehension of influencing witnesses to threat to the complainant besides possibilities of tampering with the evidence and hampering investigation and the prima facie satisfaction of the court in support of the charge”.