MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Monday expressed displeasure over the probe report submitted by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the murder case of CPI leader Govind Pansare.
The report “lacks independent steps” and the things “need t be moving”, noted the bench of justices SC Dharmadhikari and GS Patel, as they heard the petitions filed by kin of Pansare and rationalist Narendra Dabholkar seeking a court-monitored probe in their killings.
“The investigating officer has failed to list any independent steps in this report. Whatever you (SIT) have stated here is all resting on the probe in other cases (the probe into killings of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar and journalist Gauri Lankesh),” the bench said.
“We must convey our unhappiness. Things are not moving. We are refraining from passing critical order against the officer only in light of prevailing conditions of continuous rains in the area. But we hope the SIT will submit a better and comprehensive report next time,” the bench added.
The court said the only reason it was refraining from passing a more critical order was that it realised the officer concerned had failed to make any significant progress in the past few weeks due to floods in Kolhapur.
Earlier, during the hearing, the CBI, which is investigating the Dabholkar case, also submitted a progress report on its probe.
While Dabholkar was shot dead on August 20, 2013 in Pune, Pansare was shot at on February 16, 2015 in Kolhapur and succumbed to his injuries a few days later on February 20. The SIT was formed after the family members of Pansare and Dabholkar moved HC demanding court monitoring of the probe.
Meanwhile, a court in Kolhapur increased the police custody awarded to the three accused in Pansare murder case by another 4 days. Sachin Andure, Amit Baddi and Ganesh Miskin were sent to 10 days of custody on September 6. They were presented before the court upon completion of the remand. The court awarded additional four day’s custody to the police.
During interrogation the three accused revealed names of three other who had companied them to the jungles near Belgaum where they underwent training on an air pistol. The trio had conducted recce in various parts of Kolhapur to target Pansare. However, Andure, the key person, is not providing complete information, the SIT told th Court.
Andure is suspected to be the shooter who shot at Dabholkar in Pune.