Long wait for justice: Court is likely to deliver verdict in Dabholkar murder case tomorrow

Pune: Special Judge PP Jadhav is likely to deliver judgment in the Narendra Dabholkar murder case on Friday, about 11 years after the rationalist was shot dead.

Dabholkar, then 67, was shot dead by two motorcycle assailants near Omkareshwar Bridge in Shaniwar Peth during a morning walk on August 20, 2013. The rationalist, founder of Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (MANS), dedicated his life to the eradication of social evils, religious superstition and caste system.

During the trial, the prosecution heard twenty witnesses, while the defense heard two witnesses. The special prosecutor said: “We have heard 20 witnesses, the trial has been completed and the case is now at the final judgment stage.”

The order, if the court sticks to the date and comes down on May 10, will last just three days before 11 of Maharashtra’s constituencies, including Pune, Ahmednagar and Sambhajinagar, go to the polls for the LS elections.

After the killing, the then Prithviraj Chavan government led by the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) faced criticism even as the arrests of Sanatan-linked individuals in 2015-2016 brought the right-wing group’s activities under scrutiny with demands for a ban on it, which the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Devendra Fadnavis government subsequently refuted.

Initially, Pune Police investigated the murder but the case was later transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in June 2014 as per the directions of the Bombay High Court.

On September 15, 2021, the hearing in the Dabholkar murder case began in a special court in the city, days after the arrest of Virendrasinh Tawde, an ENT surgeon from Navi Mumbai.

Accordingly, charges were filed against five persons, including Tawde, Sachin Andure, Sharad Kalaskar, Sanjeev Punalekar and Vikram Bhave, all associated with Sanatan Sanstha. Tawade, Andure and Kalaskar are in jail, while Punalekar and Bhave are out on bail.

Prakash Silsingikar, defense lawyer, said: “Two of our witnesses have been cross-examined from the defense side and we have always denied their role in the murder.”

Dabholkar’s murder was followed by the killings of senior communist leader Govind Pansare in February 2015, Kannada scholar MM Kalburgi in August 2015 and outspoken activist journalist Gauri Lankesh in September 2017.

Investigative agencies believe there is a common link and that the same weapon may be used to kill the rationalists.

The investigation agency has still not succeeded in recovering the murder weapon with which the rationalist was murdered.

Five months after the murder, two suspected arms dealers – Manish Nagori alias Manya and his associate Vikas Khandelwal, both from Ichalkaranji, who had been in magisterial custody since August 2013, were arrested for the murder.

The two suspects later accused Maharashtra ATS, led by then Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief and noted IPS officer Rakesh Maria, of offering ₹25 lakh to them to admit the murder. In April 2014, they were released on bail after Pune police and ATS failed to file charges.

In October 2015, the CBI informed the Bombay High Court that two Sanatan Sanstha activists were under their scanner in the Dabholkar murder case.

In June 2016, the CBI raided two places in Pune and Navi Mumbai in connection with the murder of Dabholkar CBI and arrested ENT surgeon Dr. Virendrasinh Tawde, a Sanatan activist. Two more Sanatan Sanstha members, identified as Sarang Akolkar and Vinay Pawar, were named but not arrested.

The Maharashtra ATS later arrested Sachin Andhure, who was identified by the CBI as one of the gunmen in the murder. Raut and Kalaskar were arrested from Nalasopara in Palghar district.

During the trial, the Supreme Court took the CBI to task and expressed its annoyance with the agency. While hearing the petition filed by the Dabholkar family, the division bench of Justices SC Dharmadhikari and RI Chagla said: “There must be some certainty about the trial. There should be no failure of justice…both for the victims and their families and for the arrested suspects.”

Lawyer Omkar Nevgi who represented Narendra Dabholkar’s family filed a 32-page document ‘Written Notes of Arguments’ before Special Judge PP Jadhav in March this year.

The slain rationalist’s family argued before the court that the prosecution had proven that the murder was committed “beyond reasonable doubt” by Sachin Andure and Sharad Kalaskar. They prayed that the accused should be given maximum punishment of 302 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.

On Friday, Hamid Dabholkar, the slain rationalist’s son, refused to comment on the case.

A timeline of the murder case

August 20, 2013: Rationalist Narendra Dabholkar shot dead in Pune

August 23, 2013: City police teams are formed to solve the case

August 29, 2013: Sanatan worker taken into custody from Goa

August 30, 2013: Eight crore emails and phone calls investigated

April 3, 2014: Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted

May 10, 2014: Case transferred from Pune Police to CBI

August 2, 2015: Andhshraddha Nirmulan Samiti writes a letter to the President over delay in the case

May 4, 2016: Court arrests CBI for ‘shoddy’ investigation in case, following which fresh searches begin in Panvel and Pune

February 17, 2016: Polygraph test conducted on Sanatan Sadhak, Nilesh Shinde and Hemant Shinde

May 31, 2016: CBI raids homes of Dr. Virendra Tawade and Sarang Akolkar

June 11, 2016: CBI arrests Dr. Tawde of Sanatan Sanstha and files a chargesheet against him in September the same year

May 21, 2018: Karnataka SIT arrests five persons including Amol Kale of Pimpri Chinchwad in connection with Gauri Lankesh murder case

June 30, 2018: Diary recovered from Amol Kale contains information about Vaibhav Raut, the list of progressive writers from Maharashtra and Karnataka and 36 others who are on the hit list of right-wing groups.

August 18, 2018: CBI arrests Sachin Prakasrao Andure, suspected of being one of the gunmen

May 25, 2019: CBI finds that Sanatan Sanstha’s counsel Sanjeev Punalekar helped destroy the weapons used in the murder of Dabholkar and journalist Gauri Lankesh