A Kolhapur court on Tuesday, 30 January, granted bail to Virendra Tawde, the main accused in the murder of politician and author Govind Pansare, ANI reported.
Govind Pansare was attacked by two unidentified gunmen on his way home from a morning walk in Kolhapur, on 16 February 2015. He died of bullet wounds four days later. His wife Uma, who was shot at in the skull, survived the attack but now suffers from paralysis.
According to Scroll, Tawde was also the “key conspirator” in the murder of writer and rationalist Narendra Dabholkar. He was arrested in June 2016, for Dabholkar’s murder on 20 August 2013. The party Tawde belongs to is an offshoot of the Sanatan Sanstha, which was allegedly responsible for an explosion in Goa in 2009, and for bombings in Vashi, Thane and Panvel in 2007.
Maharashtra Times reported that the public prosecutor in the case, Harshad Nimbalkar, had argued that since a Pune court had denied bail to Tawde in the Dabholkar murder case, he should also not be granted bail in Pansare’s murder.
The court has also warned Tawde against trying to influence or threaten witnesses and tamper with the evidence.
Pansare’s killing is among other murders of rationalists and civil society activists in the recent past, including Narendra Dabholkar, MM Kalburgi who was shot dead in Dharwad in neighbouring Karnataka on 30 August 2015, and journalist Gauri Lankesh’s murder in Bengaluru in 2017.
According to Scroll, Pansare was a member of the Communist Party of India and a supporter of Dabholkar’s movement against black magic. He also advocated inter-caste marriages and spoke out against the glorification of Nathuram Godse.
(With inputs from ANI, IANS, Scroll and Maharashtra Times)
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