Nearly 18 months after anti-superstition campaigner Narendra Dabholkar was shot dead brutally in Pune in a broad day light by unidentified persons, senior CPI leader and progressive Govind Pansare and his wife Uma were shot at from a close range by motorcycle-borne assailants near their residence at Kolhapur in western Maharashtra.
The shocking incident —which bore a striking resemblance to the dastardly murderous attack on Dabholkar in Pune on August 20, 2013 and came in for all-round condemnation from people across the State — took place near their residence “Ideal Housing Society” around 8.30 am when Pansare (82) and his wife Uma (67) were returning from a morning walk from the Shivaji University campus at Kolhapur.
In all, the assailants opened five rounds of fire at Pansares. While Pansare sustained bullet wounds on the nape of his neck and another minor injury on his hand, wife Uma suffered a bullet injury on her neck.
The injured Pansares were immediately rushed to the local Aster Aadhar Hospital. Pansare underwent three surgeries for removal of bullets during the day and is currently under observation in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the hospital, where his condition was described as “critical, but stable”.
Doctors attending on Uma Pansare said that given the injury suffered by her was relatively of a minor nature, she was out of danger. Eyewitnesses said that she sustained the injury when she tried to shield her husband from the bullets being sprayed on him by the assailants, who escaped immediately after the incident.
The Kolhapur police cordoned off the area soon after the incident and launched a manhunt for the assailants. However, till late on Monday night, the police had not landed any clues as to the identities of the assailants or motive behind the sensational crime.
While Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and NCP chief Sharad Pawar were among the first to condemn the attack on Pansares, the incident sparked spontaneous protests in Kolhapur town, where the political activists and citizens staged a “rasta roko” demanding the immediate arrest of the assailants behind the attack on Pansare and his wife.
Fadnavis said that the Maharashtra Government had set up ten teams to investigate and track down the culprits behind the attack on Pansares. “I am confident that we will track down the culprits as soon as possible,” the Chief Minister said. Speculation was rife in the sugar-rich western Maharashtra town of Kolhapur as to the motive behind the attack on the senior CPI leader.
While he was on the forefront of the recent anti-toll agitation in Kolhapur, he was known for his progressive look and forthright views against the communal ideology practised by the right-wing organisations and political parties. A name to reckon with the leftist movement in Maharashtra, Pansare has been heading more than a dozen employee unions in Kolhapur and surrounding areas of western Maharashtra.
For the past one month, Pansare had been speaking vociferous against right wing organisations who were lionise Nathuram Godse, the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi.