File Photo: Anti-Superstitious Activist Narendra Dabholkar
Activists of Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti (ANS) today took out a march to mark the second death anniversary of anti-superstition crusader Narendra Dabholkar who was killed on this day two years ago on a city bridge in Pune while taking a morning walk.
The marchers were led by Dabholkar's son Hamid and daughter Mukta who have taken up the cause for which their father fought his whole life, as they walked up to the bridge way and tied black ribbons as a token of their grief and also protest for the authorities' failure to track down the killers so far.
Dabholkar, one of the torch bearers of the rationalist movement in Maharashtra, was shot dead from a close range in broad daylight by unknown gunmen who are believed to have followed him when he was taking his customary morning walk.
Hamid said, "We are pained that law enforcement machinery has not been able to nab the murderers of Dabholkar. We will continue to demand justice and fight for the ideals he stood for.
"All citizens should make a common cause with the ANS to eradicate superstitions from the social mindset."
After an unsuccessful investigation by Pune police under the then commissioner Gulabrao Pol - who himself was later accused of employing superstitious methods to find the killers - the Bombay high court transferred the case to the CBI in May 2014 in an order passed in a PIL.
However, no breakthrough has been made so far in the investigation.
Maharashtra was rocked by the murder of another rationalist Govind Pansare a few months back in Kolhapur in a similar fashion by unknown gunmen when he was out for a morning walk.