Make ‘sincere effort’ to find killers of Dabholkar and Pansare, says Bombay HC

The Bombay high court on Friday directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Maharashtra state Crime Investigation Department (CID) to make “sincere and joint efforts” to trace the absconding accused in the murder cases of rationalists Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare.

Both agencies submitted status reports on their respective investigations in sealed covers to a division bench of the high court, which has been monitoring the probes.

The bench, after reading the reports, said that “while efforts were being taken in the right direction the agencies should work in tandem since the profile of the accused persons in both cases was similar and they belonged to the same right-wing group”.

The court said, “We are of the opinion that further co-ordination is expected from both the CBI and the CID. Joint efforts have to be made to trace the absconding accused who are said to be the main perpetrators of the crimes. Bearing in mind the seriousness of the crimes committed, we expect and hope both the agencies will make sincere efforts in the case,” the court said. “We expect the agencies to not leave any loose ends in the probe. We expect something concrete to emerge in the future in the probe,” it said.

The court added that the agencies must not “waste time” pursuing the high court to bunch together all pending petitions.

The court is likely to hear the matter next on April 20.

Dabholkar was shot dead in Pune on August 20, 2013, while Pansare was shot in Kolhapur on February 16, 2015 and succumbed to his injuries four days later.

While the CBI is probing the Dabholkar murder, a special investigating team of the state CID is investigating Pansare’s murder.

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