The critically wounded CPI leader Govind Pansare, who was shot at by two unidentified assailants at Kolhapur on Monday last, was air-lifted by the State Government from his native town in western Maharashtra to Mumbai admitted to the Breach Candy Hospital for treatment, on Friday evening. Not wanting to take any chances, the Devendra Fadnavis-led Government —which has come in a for flak from various quarters about the shocking manner in which Pansare and his wife Uma were shot near their residence and its failure to nab the culprits so far – flew the senior CPI leader in an air-ambulance from Kolhapur to Mumbai, where he was admitted to the state-of-art Breach Candy Hospital.
Pansare (82) and his wife Uma (67) had been shot from a close range, near their residence “Ideal Housing Society” at around 8.30 am on Monday last, when the couple was returning from a morning walk from the Shivaji University campus at Kolhapur. 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 two surgeries for removal of bullets during the day and was under observation in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the hospital, where his condition was described as “critical, but stable”. However, after he developed swelling in his lungs on Thursday, Pansare was shifted in an air ambulance on Friday evening from the Aster Aadhar Hospital at Kolhapur to the Breach Candy Hospital in south Mumbai where Pansare’s condition was described as “critical, but stable”.