Pansare killing: Maha CID has no objection if probe handed to ATS, HC told

Mumbai: The Maharashtra Criminal Investigation Department, probing the killing of Left-wing leader Govind Pansare for the last seven years, told the Bombay High Court on Monday it had "no objection" if the investigation is transferred to the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS).

A Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the CID was constituted in 2015 following the order passed by the high court on a plea filed by Pansare's family members seeking the investigation by a special team.

Pansare was shot dead in Maharashtra's Kolhapur in February 2015.

On Monday, Pansare's kin told the high court that the SIT had not made any headway in the case in the last seven years and sought the transfer of the case to the ATS.

SIT counsel Ashok Mundargi told Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Sharmila Deshmukh that the CID chief has submitted a letter saying, since the ATS is also a probe agency of the state government, it had no objection if the probe is transferred.

Mundargi also said if the HC decides against the transfer of the probe then the state was willing to change the entire composition of the SIT.

"What purpose will that serve though? Ultimately, your aim should also be to go to the root of the matter, no?" the high court asked.

"And if the ATS takes over, again after all these years, when some accused are already in custody, the probe will have to begin afresh," it said.

The judges then asked Mundargi to take instructions by Wednesday on whether an officer of the ATS could join the current SIT. "That should serve the purpose," the HC said.

Pansare family's counsel Abhay Nevagi told the judges that it was the ATS that made headway in the probe into the killings of Pansare, rationalist Narendra Dabholkar, Kannada scholar MM Kalburgi, and journalist Gauri Lankesh, by arresting some men in 2020 in the Aurangabad arms haul case.

In the 2020 case, the Maharashtra ATS arrested Vaibhav Raut, Sharad Kalaskar and Sudhanwa Gondhalekar.

Kalsakar revealed during interrogation that the absconding accused Sachin Andure and Vinay Pawar were the alleged shooters in the Pansare case.

"It is also our case that there's a common thread among all these cases. He (Nevagi) is blaming us and the CBI. The shooters identified are yet to be traced. Almost all the investigating agencies in the country, the CBI, NIA, and several state police are after them. This is not the ATS' failure alone," Mundargi said.