Bombay HC Suspends Life Sentence of Man Convicted For Murder of Narendra Dabholkar, Grants Him Bail

New Delhi: Citing “extremely weak evidence”, the Bombay high court on Tuesday (August 18) suspended the life sentence handed by a special court to Sachin Andure, who was convicted for the murder of anti-superstition activist Narendra Dabholkar, reported Hindustan Times.

A division bench of Justices Sarang Kotwal and Ranjitsinha Bhonsale said that there are “fair chances” of Andure getting acquitted in the appeal. This was the second time that a convict in the case was granted bail. Earlier in April, the court had granted bail to Andure’s co-convict Sharad Kalaskar.

“The evidence against the applicant (Andure) is very weak, even by prima facie observations, without analysing the evidence in depth,” said the bench. “The applicant is in custody on the basis of this weak piece of evidence for about six years from the arrest in this case,” said the court.

On May 10, 2024, a special CBI court in Pune had convicted and sentenced Kalaskar and Andure to life imprisonment for killing the Dabholkar.

While the CBI court had convicted Andure based on the evidence of two “eye-witnesses” – a sweeper working with the Pune Municipal Corporation and a morning walker, the high court, however, found the evidence of both the eye-witnesses “extremely weak”.

The high court said that they had seen the shooters from a distance and the sweeper had identified the shooters in court after a long gap of 7 years and 8 years, respectively.

The high court also termed the extra-judicial confession made by Andure to a Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar resident, which was the third piece of evidence against him as “weak” saying that the disclosure came five years later and there was no corroboration to the claim.

“There is nothing to show that the Applicant was so close to him (the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar resident) that he would confess his crime before this witness,” said the court.

It added that there was no connecting piece of evidence to show how the CBI officer investigating the case learnt that the Applicant had made a confession to this witness.

Dabholkar, the founder of the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (MANS), was shot dead by two men who fired at him on Omkareshwar Bridge, Deccan, close to his residence in Pune, on August 20, 2013 when he was returning from morning walk.

The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.