The Bombay High Court on Thursday decided to end its monitoring the progress of probe into the murder case of Communist Party of India (CPI) leader Govind Pansare on the grounds that the only aspect left to be investigated was the tracing of the two absconding accused.
The Bench of Justice AS Gadkari and Justice Kamal Khata passed the order, while disposing of a petition filed by some of the accused against the High Court’s continuous monitoring of the case.
It noted that the only aspect left to be investigated was the tracing of the two accused, who were currently absconding. There was no need for the Court to monitor this aspect, it added.
The High Court, however, directed the trial court to expedite the trial by conducting hearings on a daily basis.
Pansare was shot dead by extremists in February 2015 near his house in Kolhapur. He succumbed to his injuries five days later.
A petition was filed in the High Court by Smita Pansare, daughter of the CPI leader, alleging slow progress in the murder investigation. The petitioner contended that there was a larger conspiracy in the murders of Pansare and other activists like Narendra Dabholkar, MM Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh.
The petition further submitted that the four murders were interlinked and that the mastermind behind these attacks was common.
Initially, the probe into Pansare’s murder was conducted by the special investigation team (SIT) under the Crime Investigation Department of the Maharashtra Police. The case was transferred to the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on orders of the High Court in August 2022.