MUMBAI: Coming down heavily against Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, for failure in doing away with the obstacles in the ongoing probe into the killing of rationalists Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare, the Bombay High Court on Thursday went on to ask “What is the CM doing?” during the hearing on the murder cases.
Justice SC Dharmadhikari raised direct questions over the efficiency of the Chief Minister. “What is the CM doing? He holds 11 portfolios, including Home, but does not find the time to take stock of the case. His deputies do not have the time to remove obstacles in the probe?” the court observed as the case was being heard before the bench of Justice Dharmadhikari and Justice BP Colabawala.
Further, the court also noted that a political leader belonged to the state and not just any party. “It is a sovereign function and cannot be outsourced,” the court said.
The Court expressed deep displeasure about the functioning of the SIT probing the killing of Com Govind Pansare. The Court questioned whether the SIT in another state could get the clues of the murder only because it belonged to a different ideology and hence takes killings of rationalists seriously.
“It is shameful and we should not be saying this but, if that unfortunate incident in Karnataka (killing of activist-journalist Gauri Lankesh) had not happened and you (authorities in Maharashtra) had not coordinated with Karnataka police, you would have remained clueless,” the court said.
The court had summoned the Additional Chief Secretary (Home) of the state to explain the slow pace in the Pansare murder case on Thursday. However, along with ACS-Home Amitabh Gupta, Additional Director General of Police Sanjiv Singhal, Chief investigative officer of the SIT Tirupati Kakde and family members of Dabholkar and Pansare were present at the court.
The court made the remarks after CID lawyer Ashok Mundargi submitted that the agency had doubled the strength of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the Pansare case. He said there were now 35 officers in the team.
“Top officers have reviewed the case thoroughly recently. Five meetings have been conducted in the past few months, and the reward announced for any information on the absconding accused has been increased from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 50 lakh,” Mundargi said.
The HC, however, dismissed the submissions, saying these were “knee-jerk reactions” introduced only after the court made some adverse remarks on the previous hearing. It said the authorities could not just rely on vigilant citizens for help.
It is "shameful" that almost every investigation requires the court’s intervention, the bench said.
“We are not impressed. These are knee-jerk reactions. You think people will come forward to help you for money? Of all you know, they might be earning more for keeping quiet,” the bench said while granting time to both the agencies till April 26 for further probe in the cases.