CBI has done ‘bare minumum’ in Dabholkar case, says Bombay HC

The Bombay high court on Wednesday directed the joint director of the Central Bureau of investigation (CBI) to file a report explaining the reason behind the slack progress made in the probe of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar’s murder case.

An HC division bench also directed the state government’s counsel, Mankunwar Deshmuk to ask the Additional Director General of the state CID for a rough estimate of the time it will take for them to make a concrete headway in the murder probe of communist leader Govind Pansare.

The bench went through the status reports submitted by both agencies in the cases and said it was “not satisfied” with the progress made. It said the steps taken so far were just “bare minimum” in any murder case and that the agencies had simply been wiling away time and seeking additional time one court hearing after another.

The bench also rejected the CBI’s request to defer the trial in the Dabholkar case until it manages to secure the the ballistics report from the United Kingdom’s Scotland Yard of the two cases and murder case of Kannada scholar MM Kalburgi.

The court said, “No one in the society is was safe today, be it government school teachers, activists, public leaders, or politicians and yet, the state has failed to take any steps to make lives any safer.”

It directed both the agencies to “prove their sincerity” by taking steps to apprehend those responsible for the murder and build a strong case against them. “We have given you enough time but are not satisfied with your efforts. Besides, why aren’t all the agencies probing these cases coordinating with each other? The CBI claims to have uploaded the photos of the suspects on its website. Is the state CID not aware of the website? Can’t its officers have a look and make efforts to identify them?” the bench said.

The observations came while the bench was hearing a plea filed by the kin of both Dabholkar and Pansare seeking that the court monitor the probe. It has now scheduled the matter for further hearing on December 16.