Taking serious cognisance of the failure on the part of the Pune police to achieve a breakthrough in investigating the much-discussed murder of noted rationalist Narendra Dabholkar, the Bombay High Court on Friday transferred the case to the CBI, after overruling the objections raised by the Maharashtra Government.
“The PIl is allowed and the case is being transferred to CBI,” Justice PV Hardas of the High Court said, in his ruling on a PIl filed by former journalist Ketan Tirodkar seeking the transfer of the Narendra Dabholkar murder case from the Pune police to the CBI.
On Thursday, the HC had reserved its order on the PIl, after CBI counsel Rebecca Gonsalves opposed the transfer of the murder case to the Central Investigating Agency on the ground that the petitioner had not made any allegations against either the Maharashtra Government or the Pune police about the “shoddy” investigations in the case.
Dabholkar (69) was shot dead from a point blank range by two motor-bicycle riding gunmen, while he was taking a morning walk on the Omkareshwar bridge in Pune, on August 20 last year.
The brutal murder of Dabholkar —who had long been crusading for the passage of anti-superstition and black magic bill in the Maharashtra legislature — had caused a major furore in the State. Given that Pune had failed to make any headway into the investigations into the murder case, the Maharashtra Government faced criticism from various quarters in recent months.
In his petition, Tirodkar contended that though he had not made any allegations against the Pune police about the “shoddy” investigations in the case, he wanted the investigations in a criminal case to be transferred to the CBI in view of the fact that it had national or international ramifications.
The petitioner pointed out that the Pune Police had conducted investigations in other states like Madhya Pradesh and Goa suspecting the involvement of Hindu right-wing organizations like Sanatan Sanstha, Abhinav Bharat and the Bajrang Dal.
Picking holes in the State Government’s argument that there was no need to transfer the case to the CBI in absence of any allegations about the “shoddy” investigations in the case, the petitioner cited a major political murder case in which senior NCP leader Padamsinh Patil is an accused, which came to be transferred to the CBI by the State Government, even though no specific allegations were made against local police.
Having set up special teams to crack the case, the Pune police had sent its personnel to Madhya Pradesh and Goa for investigations. However, the investigators ruled out the hand of a Hindu right-wing organization in the murder.
In January this year, the police arrested two suspects – Manish Nagori and Vikas Khandelwar, both residents of Hathkanangale in Kolhapur district, and booked in the Dahbolkar murder case. Both had originally been arrested by Thane police from Mumbra on August 20, the day of Dabholkar’s murder, and three arms had been recovered from them.
The Pune police questioned them and claimed that one of the three weapons, a 7.65 mm pistol, was used in the Dabholkar murder. The investigators had also claimed that Nagori had supplied the weapon to Khandelwar. However, later on April 22 this year, both the accused were granted bail by a Pune magisterial court after the police failed to file a charge-sheet against them within the stipulated 90-day period.
Reacting to the high court’s order transferring the case to the CBI, Shaila Dabholkar, widow of the social activist, told media persons at Satara in western Maharashtra: “A lot of time gets wasted when the investigations get transferred from one agency to the other. A lot of time is already wasted. I hope that the CBI conducts a speedy probe”.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra Home Minister RR Patil said: “I respect the HC verdict. We will co-operate fully with the CBI, and share all the work done by the Pune police so far”.
Patil’s comment should be seen in the backdrop of the fact that the state government had repeatedly rejected the demand for transferring the investigations in the Dabhokar murder case to the CBI, on the ground that the investigations being conducted by the Pune police were going on “in the right direction”, and they would soon crack the case.