Mumbai:In a major development, the Mumbai High Court on Wednesday said it will transfer the investigation into the death of activist and CPI leader Govind Pansare from the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the state Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS).
The court allowed a plea filed by Pansare’s kin seeking transfer of the probe from the SIT and said that the ATS would be assisted by a few officers of state CID, the agency that had been investigating the case to date, for continuity. A division bench of Justice Revati Mohite-Dere and Justice Sharmila Deshmukh passed an order in an application filed by Pansare’s daughter Smita and daughter-in-law Megha, wherein advocate Abhay Nevagi told the court that the state police was yet to make any breakthrough in the case even after seven years.
Nevagi had told the high court that there was a larger conspiracy in the murders of Pansare and other activists, including Dr. Narendra Dabholkar, M M Kalburgi, and Gauri Lankesh, as all the cases are “linked.” He added that since Dabholkar’s trial has commenced, that investigation cannot be transferred, but a probe into Pansare’s death can be transferred to the ATS. Nevagi said the Lankesh and Kalburgi cases probed by Karnataka Police SIT will soon reach their logical conclusion.