On Friday, a Pune court found two of the accused guilty for the murder of activist Narendra Dabholkar in 2013. The life imprisonment was given to both convicts while three other persons including prime suspect Virendrasinh Tawde were acquitted by the judge.
A special court in Pune has ruled that Dabholkar committed murder nearly 11 years after he was killed by two men on a motorcycle at Vitthal Ramji Shinde bridge near Omkareshwar temple on August 20, 2013.
Sachin Andure and Sharad Kalaskar were given life imprisonment and fined INR500000 by the court. Due to lack of evidence Tawde, Sanjeev Punalekar and Vikram Bhave who had been charged as co-accused walked free.
The following killings included those of Govind Pansare (august16, Kolhapur 2015) veteran left leader, MM Kalburgi (dharwad august30 ,2015) scholar and Gauri Lankesh (Bengaluru September 20,2017), journalist.
Police in Pune initially investigated the murder. Following an order from Bombay High Court in June 2016 requiring the arrest of Tawde associated with Hindu right-wing group Sanatan Sanstha in India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which then took over investigation in 2014.
Murder’s organizers among whom there was Tad according to public prosecutors.
