The Bombay High Court transferred the investigation of the 2015 killing of CPI leader Govind Pansare to the Maharashtra Anti-terrorism Squad (ATS) from the Crime Investigation Department (CID) on Wednesday, 3 August.
Pansare and his wife were shot by two assailants while they were out on a morning walk on 16 February 2015. While Uma Pansare survived the attack, the CPI leader died four days later.
Pansare's killing came amid the string of murders of rationalists and civil society activists in the recent past, including Narendra Dabholkar, MM Kalburgi – who was shot dead in Dharwad in neighbouring Karnataka on 30 August 2015 – and journalist Gauri Lankesh in Bengaluru in 2017.
Earlier on Monday, 3 August, the Maharashtra government told the Bombay High Court that it had no objection to transferring the investigation of Pansare's murder from the CID's Special Investigation Team (SIT) to the ATS.
The court was hearing an application filed by Pansare's daughter Smita and daughter-in-law Megha, while advocate Abhay Nevagi argued that the SIT hadn't made a breakthrough in the case even after seven years of the killing.
'ATS Appropriate Agency'
Nevagi said on Monday that the ATS was an appropriate agency that can take the Pansare case to a logical conclusion, as most breakthroughs in the case had been made by it. He also contended that there was no dedicated team of officers to probe the Pansare case, as five IPS officers were replaced in between.
The case made some progress in 2018 only after the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) conducted a series of raids and seized weapons and raw materials for crude bombs from the Nalasopara area.
Further investigation revealed that people with connections to the right-wing extremist group Sanathan Sanstha were involved in the murder.
In 2019, investigative agencies found crucial links connecting Pansare's killing with the murders of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar and journalist Gauri Lankesh. But the key evidence to nail the killers, the murder weapon, is yet to be found.
At least 10 people have been arrested in connection with Pansare's killing so far. However, the two main suspected shooters are still at large.
(With inputs from PTI and The Indian Express.)
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