The Bombay High Court has granted bail to Sharad Kalaskar, who was convicted in the 2013 murder of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar. Kalaskar, who is also facing trial for the murder of Govind Pansare, was granted bail on a surety of Rs 50,000.
The Bombay High Court granted bail to Sharad Kalaskar, convicted in the 2013 Narendra Dabholkar murder case, suspending his life sentence and questioning his identity as the assailant and the integrity of eyewitnesses.
The conspiracy was hatched by Virendra Sinh Tawde (already arrested), Kalaskar and others, CBI lawyer said.
Dabholkar (67), an anti-superstition crusader, was shot dead while on a morning walk on Omkareshwar Bridge here on August 20, 2013.
The investigating agencies could not expose the masterminds behind the murder of rationalist Dr Narendra Dabholkar, and must introspect whether it was a mere failure or a 'deliberate inaction' due to the influence of any 'person in power', the trial court here said on Friday in its judgment.
A bench of Justices M M Sundresh and SVN Bhatti said the high court has passed a reasoned order while granting bail to the accused in the matter.
Additional sessions judge A A Jadhav of the special court for cases under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act is likely to pronounce the judgement on Friday, said special public prosecutor Prakash Suryawanshi.
Judge S S Tambe on Monday framed charges against Sameer Gaikwad, Virendra Sinh Tawde, Amol Kale, Vasudev Suryawanshi, Bharat Kurane, Amit Degvekar, Sharad Kalaskar, Sachin Andure, Amit Baddi and Ganesh Miskin.
Dabholkar, who headed the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti, was shot dead in Pune on August 20, 2013, allegedly by members of a right-wing extremist group. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is conducting a probe into the case.
A foreign sea explorer agency recovered the firearm from a creek in neighbouring Thane district of Maharashtra.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday submitted to a special court here a list of documents and witnesses that it would like to rely upon in the trial of rationalist Dr Narendra Dabholkar murder case.
Claiming that there was a link between the accused in the two cases, the CBI on Friday took the custody of Bangera and Digvekar from the Karnataka SIT.
The Bombay high court on Thursday granted bail to Vikram Bhave, an accused in the killing of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar in 2013.
So far, six people, including Hindu Janajagruti Samiti member and ENT surgeon Virendrasinh Tawde, Sachin Andure and Sharad Kalaskar, have been arrested by the CBI in connection with the killing of Dabholkar.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has argued in a court that the five accused in the 2013 murder case of rationalist Dr Narendra Dabholkar be tried under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for striking "terror among a section of people".
In August 2016, at a meeting of the syndicate, the main members identified Lankesh as a durjan "as told in the Kshatra Dharma Sadhana based on her speeches and writings
The defence on Wednesday refused to admit the list of 13 documents, including the spot 'panchnama', submitted by the prosecution in the rationalist Narendra Dabholkar murder case in a court here in Maharashtra.
'If timely action was taken by the CBI, the other three murders could have been prevented.'
The activist's family members last month filed an application in the high court seeking for the probe to be transferred to the ATS claiming that the SIT has not been able to make a breakthrough in the case yet.
Dabholkar was shot dead in August, 2013 while Lankesh was shot dead in September, 2017.
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