This Article is From Sep 30, 2016

CBI Gets 6 Weeks To Bring Forensic Reports From UK In Rationalists' Murders

CBI Gets 6 Weeks To Bring Forensic Reports From UK In Rationalists' Murders

Bombay High Court issued the order that CBI must produce reports of Pansare and Dabholkar murder cases.

Mumbai: The investigators in the murder cases of rationalists Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare and MM Kalburgi, have been given six weeks to get ballistic reports from British experts.

The Bombay High Court, which issued the order on Thursday, said it hoped the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Maharashtra government's Special Investigation Team can work in co-ordination. The remark came after the agency and the SIT had submitted their reports on the Pansare and Dabholkar murder cases.

Rationalist Narendra Dabholkar was shot dead while he was on a morning walk in Pune on August 20, 2013. Less than a year later, on May 19, 2014, Govind Pansare was shot dead in Kolhapur.

The CBI has said the two murders are related. Two persons, Virendra Tawde and Sameer Gaikwad, have been arrested in these cases. Both are associated with a right wing group, the Sanathan Sanstha.

The evidence was sent to Scotland Yard to find out whether there were links between the murders of the three rationalists, as it is suspected that same kind of weapons were used in all the killings.

While Dabholkar and Pansare were killed at different places in Maharashtra, Kalburgi was shot dead in Karnataka.

Pulling up the SIT -- which is probing the Govind Pansare murder case -- for revealing details on leads of the investigations to the media, the court said, "if not for us, your primitive mode of investigation would not have reached here".

"Until CBI came on the scene, you did nothing. Don't provide leads to absconding accused," the court added.

The investigating agencies have said there is some 'clinching evidence' emerging from interrogation of the accused Virendra Tawde and they are waiting for more details.

The next hearing in the case is on November 23.
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