Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Thursday said that since the main task remaining was for the investigators to trace two absconding accused, it would be ending its monitoring of the progress into the 2015 murder of Communist Party of India (CPI) leader Govind Pansare. The HC disposed of petitions filed by his kin for a thorough probe and also those filed by a few accused in the case who challenged the continuing monitoring of the probe by the HC.
The HC division bench of Justices A S Gadkari and Kamal Khata said there was no need for the court to monitor this aspect of tracing the two accused. However, the bench directed that the trial court must expedite the trial and conduct the hearing on a day-to-day basis.
Pansare was shot by assailants during a mid-morning walk in Feb 2015 in Kolhapur. He succumbed to injuries five days later.
On the first day of reopening of the court following the Christmas vacation, the HC said, “It is clear to us that the only aspect left to be investigated is the tracing of the absconding two accused… Only for the arrest of absconding accused… Monitoring of investigation by this court is not necessary.”
The investigation, initially led by CID SIT, was transferred to ATS in 2022 after limited progress. The prosecution said trial was going on and 28 prosecution witnesses had deposed, and the next key witness would be Pansare’s widow. TNN