Mumbai: Over the past decade, four noted rationalists were murdered in different cities under strikingly similar circumstances, with overlapping suspects linked to Hindu fundamentalist organisations. These cases are being investigated by separate agencies, evidently without proper coordination, despite obvious and overarching Hindutva link between these crimes. Now, a special trial court in Kolhapur of Maharashtra, while cancelling the bail of the ‘main conspirator’ and ‘mastermind’ of the murders, has emphasised that the murders of Govind Pansare, Gauri Lankesh, Dr. Narendra Dabholkar, and Professor M.M. Kalburgi “are all interconnected”.
The special court on July 16 cancelled the bail of the prime suspect Virendrasinh Sharadchandra Tawade in the murder case of Communist Party of India (CPI) leader Pansare in 2015. Tawade, a practicing doctor until 2000, is believed to have given up his practice to be fully involved with the radical Hindutva organisation Sanatan Sanstha and its associated body, Hindu Janjagruti Samiti.
Dabholkar, Pansare…a pattern
Tawade has been on bail since January 2018. In May this year, a special CBI court in Pune handling the murder of another rationalist, Dr. Narendra Dabholkar, acquitted Tawade from the case. It said the acquittal came only because the prosecuting agency, the CBI, had carried out a “shoddy investigation.”
After his release on bail, the Anti-Terrorism Squad moved the Bombay high court. But when the investigation brought to light new evidence against him, the state agency withdrew the application and moved the trial court again. Sessions judge Shailendra Tambe meticulously reviewed witnesses’ statements, the recent judgment in Dabholkar’s assassination case, and the charges levelled against Tawade, before directing the ATS to take him back into custody over six years after his release.
This is a significant development considering Tawade’s acquittal in Dabholkar’s case came through only because the CBI failed to conduct a thorough investigation, despite clear leads from many prime witnesses.
Among other things, in the Pansare murder case the ATS has relied on the statement of one important witness, Sanjay Arun Sadvilkar. The investigation revealed that Sadvilkar, who was earlier associated with Sanatan Sanstha and was a close associate of Tawade, was approached by Tawade over the arrangement of accommodations for the two absconding accused and Pansare’s assailants, Sarang Akolkar and Vinay Pawar. Sadvilkar’s statement proved crucial in Dabholkar’s murder trial too.
Also read: Dabholkar Case: Court Pulls up Maharashtra Police, CBI for Shoddy Investigation
In Dabholkar’s murder trial, although the motive could not be established, the special CBI court held the assailants – Sachin Prakashrao Andure and Sharad Bhausaheb Kalaskar – guilty under sections 302 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code for murder and common intention. Sadvilkar, in his deposition in Dabholkar’s case, claimed that Tawade had had an altercation with Dabholkar in 2004 when Dabholkar visited Kolhapur for a public event. Dabholkar, an outspoken critic of radical Hindu right-wingers, criticised these outfits for spreading superstitious beliefs among people. He was also the main force behind the drafting of the Anti-Superstition Bill, which was passed only after his killing in 2013.
‘Dharma karya’
Similarly, in Pansare’s case, according to Sadvilkar’s statement recorded in the chargesheet, Tawade, along with Akolkar and Pawar, had carried out a reconnaissance of the area where Pansare lived in Kolhapur and were in the process of procuring arms and ammunition for certain work related to “dharma (literally, religion).” The killing of Pansare and other rationalists was treated as part of “dharma” by the Sanatan Sanstha fanatics. Reports have earlier pointed out that Call Data Record (CDR) analysis of Tawade’s cell number clearly shows that he was in the vicinity of Kolhapur just before the incident.
Since according to the ATS, Tawade was closely associated with the assailants and had been in touch with them through email throughout the killings, sessions judge Tambe pointed out that Tawade could very well continue to be in touch with the accused and there is a likelihood of him committing similar crimes in the future.
“If bail granted to the accused (Tawade) is not canceled, there is a likelihood that the accused could commit similar offenses and repeat them along with co-accused and absconding accused, Sarang Akolkar and Vinay Pawar,” the court’s order states.
The bail order also notes Tawade’s nature of involvement, calling him the “leader” of the other accused persons. In Pansare, Dabholkar, and journalist Gauri Lankesh’s murder cases, the court observed that the gang of assailants in all three cases were organised under Tawade’s leadership. As per the statement of one witness, Suraj Mahajan, recorded before a magistrate, Tawade had instigated him to undertake firearms training for the cause of “dharma karya (literally, religious work)” in November-December 2014. Tawade allegedly played a role in brainwashing many other young men and pushed them into arms training.
Lower court’s ‘grave indiscretion’
The sessions court judge also made a serious observation on the earlier judge’s decision to grant Tawade bail in 2018. Tawade’s bail came through on grounds of parity after his co-accused Sameer Vishnu Gaikwad was granted bail. Gaikwad was earlier denied bail by the high court, but later a sessions court granted him bail. To this, sessions judge Tambe observed, “[J]udicial propriety required the Sessions Court not to entertain the subsequent application for bail. The course adopted by the learned Sessions Judge in entertaining and granting bail to the respondent, despite the rejection of his earlier application by this Court on merits, amounts to grave indiscretion which impinges upon judicial discipline and propriety.”
Radical Hindu groups like Sanatan Sanstha and Hindu Janjagruti Samiti have time and again been accused and even held guilty of bomb blasts and killings in the past decade. But the Narendra Modi-led government has not taken any measures to declare them unlawful or terror outfits. The organisation has continued to stay above ground and flourish in many parts of India, particularly in the Konkan region of Maharashtra, Goa, and Karnataka.
In Pansare’s murder trial, since the charges were framed in January 2023, the court has already examined 24 prosecution witnesses. Since most of these witnesses are well known to Tawade, the sessions court, while canceling his bail, said, “There is a possibility of (Tawade) pressurising the prosecution witnesses and repeating similar offences.”
