Govind Pansare was shot by two motorcycle-borne men near his house in Kolhapur. (File Photo)
The Bombay High Court today extended till December 2 the stay on trial in Communist leader Govind Pansare's murder case to enable the SIT or Special Investigation Team to file a supplementary charge sheet.
Public prosecutor Sandeep Shinde informed the court that the SIT of Kolhapur police had made Virendrasing Tawde, alleged member of conservative Hindu group Sanatan Sanstha, an accused in the case.
The SIT would be filing a supplementary charge sheet naming him, so the trial should be stayed further till then, he said.
Mr Tawde is also an accused in the Narendra Dabholkar murder case, being probed by the CBI.
Justice Revati Mohite-Dere then granted further extension to the stay.
Mr Pansare, a noted rationalist, was shot by two motorcycle-borne men near his house in Kolhapur on February 16, 2015. He died a few days later.
The high court stayed the trial before Kolhapur court in June, 2016 on a petition filed by Mr Pansare's family so that the SIT could obtain a ballistic report from a forensic laboratory in UK.
The high court today also directed the lower court to defer framing of charges against Sameer Gaikwad, another alleged member of Sanatan Sanstha, who was arrested earlier in the Govind Pansare case.
The laboratory report is awaited to find out if there was any link between the killings of Mr Pansare, anti-superstition activist Narendra Dabholkar and Kannada writer-scholar MM Kalburgi, all three of whom had faced threats from groups.