2 get life term in Dabholkar murder case

New Delhi, May 10

A Special UAPA court in Pune on Friday convicted two accused Sachin Andure and Sharad Kalaskar, and sentenced them to life imprisonment in connection with the murder of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar.

However, the court acquitted three other accused — Virendrasinh Tawde, Sanjeev Punalekar and Vikram Bhave — in the case due to lack of evidence.

Reading out the order in a packed courtroom, Additional Sessions Judge (Special Court) PP Jadhav said that the prosecution had proved the charges of murder and conspiracy against Andure and Kalaskar who were awarded life imprisonment.

According to the CBI, Andure and Kalaskar had shot Dabholkar, who headed the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti, in Pune on August 20, 2013.

Dabholkar’s murder was followed by the shooting of Govind Pansare in February 2015 and MM Kalburgi in Kolhapur in August same year. Gauri Lankesh was shot dead outside her home in Bengaluru in September 2017.

The Pune police initially probed the case, but later the CBI took over the probe following a Bombay High Court order in 2014. It arrested Virendrasinh Tawde, an ENT surgeon linked to the Hindu right-wing organisation Sanatan Sanstha, in June 2016. According to the prosecution, Tawde was one of the masterminds of the murder.

Sanatan Sanstha to which Tawde and some of the other accused were linked, was opposed to the work carried out by Dabholkar’s organisation, it claimed. Dabholkar had been running the samiti for many years where he published various books and undertook workshops for the eradication of superstitions.