Maharashtra News / Court's big decision in Narendra Dabholkar murder case, life imprisonment to 2 accused

Maharashtra News: Pune's special court has sentenced two accused to life imprisonment in the murder case of Narendra Dabholkar. Let us tell you that Nigle Dabholkar was shot dead on August 20, 2013 while he was out on a morning walk on Pune's Omkareshwar Bridge. Narendra Dabholkar was known for leading a movement against superstition in Maharashtra. Rationalist Narendra Dabholkar was shot dead on 20 August 2013 while he was out for a morning walk on the Omkareshwar Bridge in Pune city of Maharashtra. The attackers had fired 5 bullets one after the other at Dabholkar, out of which 2 bullets misfired but 2 bullets hit his head and chest. He died on the spot.

Dabholkar's campaign against superstition

After committing the incident, the bike-riding attackers fled from the spot. The main reason behind Dabholkar's murder is considered to be the conflict between Maharashtra Superstition Eradication Committee and Sanatan Sanstha. Five people have been made accused in this case. Special public prosecutor Prakash Suryavanshi had said on Thursday that Additional Sessions Judge AA Jadhav of the special court for cases related to the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act would probably pronounce the verdict on Friday. During the trial, the prosecution questioned 20 witnesses while the defense questioned two witnesses. The prosecution, in its closing arguments, had said the accused were opposed to Dabholkar's campaign against superstition.

murLet us tell you that initially the case was being investigated by the Pune Police, but after the order of the Bombay High Court, in 2014, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) took over the case and in June 2016, it was linked to the Hindu right-wing organization Sanatan Sanstha. Dr. Virendra Singh Tawde was arrested. According to the prosecution, Tawde was one of the main conspirators of the murder. He claimed that Sanatan Sanstha was opposed to the work done by Dabholkar's organization Maharashtra Andhashradha Nirmoolan Samiti. Tawde and some other accused were associated with this institute. The CBI, in its charge sheet, had initially named fugitives Sarang Akolkar and Vinay Pawar as the shooters but later arrested Sachin Andure and Sharad Kalaskar and claimed in a supplementary charge sheet that they had shot Dabholkar.

Same pattern, but many murders

Subsequently, the central agency arrested advocates Sanjeev Punalekar and Vikram Bhave as alleged co-conspirators. The accused were booked under sections 120B (conspiracy), 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code, relevant sections of the Arms Act and section 16 (punishment for terrorist acts) of the UAPA. Tawde, Andure and Kalaskar are in jail while Punalekar and Bhave are out on bail. After Dabholkar's murder, three other similar activists were murdered in the next four years, including communist leader Govind Pansare (Kolhapur, February 2015), Kannada scholar and writer M.M. Kalburgi (Dharwad, August 2015) and journalist Gauri Lankesh ( Bengaluru, September 2017). It is suspected that the criminals in these four cases are related to each other.