Nothing more to investigate in Pansare murder: ATS to Bombay HC

MUMBAI: Maharashtra’s Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) told the Bombay high court on Thursday that it had probed all the allegations that were made in the application by the kin of slain communist leader and trade union activist Govind Pansare, and that there was nothing more to investigate.

The family members of Pansare, in a letter to the Maharashtra ATS, had alleged that the Hindutva organisation Sanatan Sanstha was systematically killing intellectuals in Maharashtra and Karnataka, and demanded an investigation into its activities. The 68-page letter was submitted to Jayant Meena, Superintendent of Police, ATS, Pune division, ahead of a Bombay high court hearing.

Jayant Meena, who was present in court, submitted the letter dated November 12 as well as his report on the allegations made in the letter.

Advocate Abhay Nevagi told the court that there was a danger to 34 other people, including journalists Kumar Ketkar and Nikhil Wagle. “One of the accused is also involved in the 2010 Goa bomb blast case,” he told the court, adding that a combined reading of chargesheets in various crimes would show that the Sanatan Sanstha had conducted pistol-training sessions and a few workshops on making crude bombs. “Hence, we are saying this goes beyond a single person and that there is a larger conspiracy involved,” he said, pointing to the fact that the same weapons were used in the murders of Narendra Dabholkar, Pansare, Gauri Lankesh and M M Kalburgi.

However, the court said there was not much left to investigate. “The ATS has investigated for the last two years… It says UAPA provisions cannot be invoked. We think they have completed the investigation,” said the bench of Justice Ajay Gadkari and Justice Kamal Khata.

Advocate Subhash Jha, appearing for accused Virendra Tawade, said, “No prayers from the petition are pending. Monitoring is over, investigation is over, three chargesheets have been filed, and 28 witnesses have been examined.” Jha further stressed that “superior courts monitoring an investigation can have deleterious effects on investigation. There cannot be any monitoring once the investigation is over.”

The HC has now adjourned the matter to allow the family to deliberate if any steps need to be taken.

Common link

Pansare and his wife Uma were shot by two bike-borne assailants in Kolhapur on February 16, 2015, while on a morning walk. Pansare succumbed to his injuries on February 20 while his wife survived. The Bombay high court on August 3, 2022, handed the case over from the Maharashtra police to the Maharashtra ATS “to investigate the larger conspiracy” behind the series of murders, as there “appeared to be a common link”.

In its representation submitted to the ATS office in Pune on June 27, the Pansare family reiterated the high court’s observations, saying, “You [ATS] will appreciate that there exists a common sophisticated network of organised criminals/ organised crime syndicate of the Sanatan Sanstha behind the four murders. It is not a mere coincidence that the members …have been and are being accused/convicted in ghastly crimes for more than a decade.”

When contacted by HT then, the Sanatan Sanstha had strongly refuted the allegations levelled against it in the Pansare family’s representation. The Sanstha’s national spokesperson Chetan Rajhans had claimed that Sanatan Sanstha was a spiritual organisation and had no connection with any unlawful activity or organised crime syndicate. “The Pansare family’s allegations against Sanatan Sanstha are just theories, propaganda to defame us,” he said. “Pansare’s death causes us pain, but the Pansare family is using his death to defame us.”