Govind Pansare case: Virendra Tawde files plea

Mumbai: Dr Virendra Tawde, an accused in the murder cases of Pune rationalist Narendra Dabholkar (August 2013) and Kolhapur CPI leader Govind Pansare (February 2015), has approached the Bombay high court seeking to be included as a respondent in a petition filed by the Maharashtra government seeking a stay in the Pansare trial. The state Criminal Investigation Department (CID) had filed a petition earlier this year in which the state has said that till the ballistic report arrives from Scotland Yard, the trial in the Pansare case should not start.

Unidentified assailants murdered Dabholkar in Pune on August 20, 2013, while comrade Govind Pansare was shot at on February 16, 2015 in Kolhapur. He died on February 20 in Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai. Prof M.M. Kalburgi, a scholar, was murdered next, on August 30 last year, at Dharwad in Karnataka. The state CID had arrested Sameer Gaikwad, who was the sadhak of Sanatan Sanstha, and submitted a chargesheet against him in the Pansare murder case. Thereafter, in June 2016, the CBI arrested Dr Virendra Tawade from his Panvel residence under the charge of murdering Dabholkar.  

The state forensic lab initially concluded that Dabholkar, Kalburgi and Pansare were killed with the same firearm. But the Karnataka forensic report concluded differently and said two different weapons were used in the killing of the trio. Probe agencies therefore want to ascertain if there is any link between the murders of Pansare, Dabholkar and Kalburgi. Last month, CBI had sent the cartridges and bullets to the forensic lab at Scotland Yard.

The CID, in its petition, had sought for a stay in the HC on the framing of charges against Gaikwad. The high court had in June this year granted interim stay on the trial against Gaikwad.