Dabholkar murder trial: Pune court sentences 2 killers to life terms, acquits three others (Lead)

Pune, May 10 (IANS) A special court in Pune on Friday sentenced two persons to life terms, while acquitting three other accused in the sensational daylight killing of medico and rationalist Narendra Dabholkar in the city in August 2013.

Delivering the much-awaited verdict in the 11-year-old case that grabbed national headlines, Special Judge, UAPA cases, P. P. Jadhav found the two sharpshooters - Sharad B. Kalaskar and Sachin P. Andure - guilty and sentenced them to life imprisonment, plus a fine of Rs 5 lakh each, and an additional one year for failure to pay the fine.

Three others accused in the same case, Sanjeev Punhalekar, Dr Virendra Tawade, and Vikram Bhave, have been acquitted for lack of evidence, said a lawyer from the legal teams.

The children of the murdered medico, Hamid and Mukta, said that they were relieved that the killers were being punished, but they would challenge the acquittal of the other three in the Bombay High Court and the Supreme Court.

They also raised questions on how the investigators have still not caught the masterminds behind the killings and other lapses in the case with political ramifications, investigated by multiple agencies, including Pune police, the Crime Branch, and later, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The late Dabholkar was the founder-head of the influential Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (MANS) and carried out a massive crusade against superstitions, fake godmen/women, babas, tantriks, etc, that earned the ire of many including right-wing organisations.

Welcoming the verdict, Sanatan Sanstha spokesperson Chetan Rajhans said that the judgment has absolved the organisation of any involvement in Dabholkar’s killing.

"In Dr Dabholkar’s murder, our innocence has been proved today. It has also busted the ‘urban naxals’ conspiracy to malign the Sanatan Sanstha. After the claims pointing to the involvement of Hindu groups made by then Maharashtra CM Prithviraj Chavan, the government had clamped down on Hindu advocacy outfits," he said.

Around dawn on August 20, 2013, Dabholkar, 67, was on a morning walk near the Omkareshwar Bridge when he was shot dead by two motorcycle-borne assailants, who were later identified as the sharpshooters Kalaskar and Andure.

Initially, the case was investigated by the Deccan police station and later the Pune Crime Branch, but with little or no headway, the Bombay High Court ordered it over to the CBI for probe in May 2014.

The CBI lodged a complaint, started its own investigations and identified ENT surgeon Tawade, the alleged mastermind behind the Dabholkar killing with purported links with the Sanatan Sanstha.

The CBI also named two absconders – Sarang Akolkar and Vinay Pawar – as the alleged shooters but subsequently succeeded in nabbing Kalaskar and Andure who carried out the actual hit.

The CBI also arrested lawyer Sanjeev Punhalekar, and Vikram Bhave, (besides Tawade), and booked them for murder, and conspiracy to murder, as well as under the Arms Act and terror sections of the UAPA, in the first charge sheet filed in September 2016.

After more investigations, it filed supplementary charge sheets in February and November 2019.

During the long-winded trial, the prosecution examined 20 witnesses while the defence examined two witnesses.

Dabholkar’s killing was followed by a chain of murders of other prominent personalities like Left leader Govind Pansare (February 2015) in Maharashtra, and Prof. M.M. Kalburgi (August 2015), and journalist Gauri Lankesh (September 2017), both in Karnataka.

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