Bombay High Court says it is not happy with CBI probe in rationalists Dabholkar, Pansare murder cases
The court made the remarks after the CBI filed its ballistic report from a government forensic lab in Ahmedabad in a sealed cover.
UPDATED: Jan 20, 2017 14:38 IST
The Bombay High Court today said it is not happy with the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) probe into the murder of rationalists Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare, and asked the agency to not disclose the details of the case to the public without the court's permission.
The court made the remarks after the CBI filed its ballistic report from a government forensic lab in Ahmedabad in a sealed cover.
advertisement
Meanwhile, in further trouble for the CBI, the United Kingdom's Scotland Yard has said there is no agreement with India on sharing of forensic reports, and therefore the UK cannot help the CBI in the case.
- The CBI had been seeking the Yard's help in cases of murder of the two rationalists as well as Kannada writer MM Kalburgi.
- A year ago, the CBI had said it will take help from forensic experts in Scotland Yard to find out if all the three murder cases were related.
- The lower court proceedings in both Pansare murder case hearing in Kolhapur and Dabholkar trial in Pune have been stuck because of the CBI saying it was waiting for the Scotland Yard to give their expert opinions in the case.
- Prior to asking for Scotland Yard's help, the CBI had taken forensic reports from Mumbai and Bengaluru on the same ballistic cases, but reports in both the cases were different. That is why the CBI had come up with the idea that they would ask the British agency for help.
- Today, at the hearing in Mumbai, the division bench headed by Justice SC Dharmadhikari said he was aghast. "We are unhappy," he said, reflecting the rising unhappiness of the court over not getting any help from Scotland Yard.
- Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh told the court that they have recieved ballistic report from Ahmedabad forensic laboratory. "This report is much better than the earlier reports," he said.
- The court then gave Singh and the CBI eight weeks to study the material and to proceed further in the investigation, asking the CBI not to reveal the details of the report.
- Meanwhile, family members of both Pansare and Dabholkar distributed pamphlets about a few accused outside the Bombay High Court, claiming that if they are found, an award of Rs 25 lakh would be given by the Maharashtra government.
- The pamphlets bore pictures of the accused - Sarang Akolkar, Jay Prakash Hegde, Rudra Patil and Praveen Lindkar - who have been declared as absconding by the National Investigating Agency (NIA) in the Goa blast case. Another accused, Vinay Pawar, is on the CBI's lookout in the Dabholkar case, also featured on the pamphlet.
- While Dabholkar was murdered on August 20, 2013, Pansare was shot dead on February 20, 2015. Kalburgi was killed in Karnataka's Dharwad district on August 30, 2015. Investigating agencies believe that the trio were killed for their rationale approach and outspoken attitude against the right wing groups active in Maharashtra and Goa.
--- ENDS ---