Supreme Court hears case urging rationalists' murders to be viewed as interlinked

The Bombay High Court had refused to allow the continuance of monitoring the probe of rationalist Narendra Dabkolkar’s murder stating that all the accused have been arrested and the trail for the case has commenced. Narendra Dabholkar’s daughter, Mukta Dabholkar approached the Supreme Court challenging this order. 

Senior Advocate Anand Grover fought the case on her behalf. "The investigation has found that weapons used in these subsequent incidents and Dabholkar murder were the same and people involved in the crimes were also the same. Hence, CBI wanted to do further investigation," he stated while arguing his case. The subsequent incidents being referred to here are the murders of Govind Pansare, Gauri Lankesh and MM Kalburgi. 

Ms Aishwarya Bhati argued from the CBI’s side. She stated that 20 witnesses have already been cross-examined in the case pertaining to Narendra Dbholkar’s murder. Grover however stated that at the time of the High Court order, 2 of the accused were still not behind bars. 

 Dr.Virendrasinh Tawade, Sachin Andhure and Sharad Kalaskar were charged as the conspirator and the assailants respectively in the case.Sanjeev Punalekar and Vikram Bhure were charged with destruction of evidence and have been given a bail with regard to their arrest.

The court has given Anand Grover 2 weeks time to file additional documents and has also given 4 weeks time to the CBI to look into the conspiracy angle.