Veteran Bollywood actor Naseer-ud-din Shah was among those protesting lack of progress in Dr Narendra Dabolkhar's murder case
Protesters, including former judges and Bollywood celebrities, have gathered in Pune to highlight the failure of law-enforcement agencies in apprehending the killers of anti-superstition campaigner Dr Narendra Dabholkar exactly one year ago.
67-year-old Dr Dabholkar, a life-long rationalist who had been leading a campaign against black-magic and religious charlatans, was shot dead on the morning of August 20 last year in Pune by unidentified men.
The protesters- who included Bollywood actors Naseer-ud-din Shah, Amol Palekar, Sonali Kulkarni and former Supreme Court judges Hemant Gokhale- raised slogans against police failure and also observed a minute of silence in memory of the rationalist.
Dr Dabholkar had been campaigning for the state government to frame an anti-superstition law which was finally approved and passed as an ordinance a day after his murder and later passed by the state legislature in December 2013.
The new law seeks to "eradicate black magic, blind faith and superstitious beliefs, perpetrated by self-styled godmen and witchcraft and wizardry practitioners."
Pune police had failed to find any leads in the case which had led to a national uproar.
According to the protestors, as if to underscore the uphill battle Dr Dabholkar faced against supersition, Pune police allegedly hired babas and tantriks and used some of them to "communicate with spirits" in a desperate attempt to get some information that could help crack the case, something that Naseeruddin Shah termed as "shocking".
Police had denied the allegations and former Pune Police Commissioner Gulabrao Pol has filed a defamation case against the publication that carried the report.
The probe was handed over to the CBI in May after a petition by activist and former journalist Ketan Tirodkar.