Mumbai: The Bombay high court has expressed its displeasure on the probe into the Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare murder cases.
The court has directed the chief secretary of the state to conduct meetings with the additional chief secretary, home, and principal secretary of finance along with Central Bure-au of Investigation (CBI) and Special Investigation Team (SIT) officers and decide what assistance should be provided to the investigating agencies in the probe.
The court also pulled up the probe agency and said that after the death of Gauri Lankesh, no one had filed a petition in the Karnataka high court, whereas in Maharashtra, family members had to come to the court.
A division bench of Justice S.C. Dharmadhikari and Justice B.P. Colabawala was hearing petitions filed by families of rationalists Dabholkar and Pansare to monitor probe which is being conducted by the state appointed SIT and CBI. On Friday the court said that, “The state shall provide ground-level assistance if the CBI proposes to carry out any major operation.”
The bench further added “When a similar attack was carried out in Karnataka on writer Gauri Lankesh (in 2017), the police there immediately probed and arrested the accused without waiting for the court orders or for any petitions to be filed,” the court said. “We do not want the Mahara-shtra government to exp-ect court orders to investigate murders,” Justice Dharmadhikari said. Bureaucrats at the helm of affairs have to show people how they deal with such attacks, the court said.
The high court further said that political parties and their bosses should show maturity and ensure that there are no obstacles in the probe into the killings of Dabhoklar and Pansare.
“No one should attempt to silence any voice of dissent. That should be our endeavor. We expect all political parties and their bosses to show maturity and not create obstacles in the investigation,” Justice Dharmadhikari said.
