New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the daughter of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar to provide to the CBI a copy of her petition in which direction is sought that the Bombay High Court continue monitoring the investigation into his murder.
Dabholkar, who fought against superstitious beliefs, was shot dead by two bike- borne assailants during his morning walk in Pune on August 20, 2013.
A bench of justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Ahsanuddin Amanullah asked petitioner Mukta Dabholkar to supply the copy of the petition to the probe agency.
Senior advocate Anand Grover, appearing for Mukta, said the high court has stopped monitoring the investigation in the case even after the probe agency submitted that two absconding accused are yet to be apprehended and further time is needed to ascertain larger conspiracy in the murder.
“An order was passed by the High Court on March 30, 2021, in which the submission of CBI has been recorded. The said order records that the Investigating Officer has written to the CBI Headquarter to do further investigation into the larger conspiracy angle in the case but the response is awaited,” he said.
Grover said there were several incidents after Dabholkar’s murder which include murders of CPI leader Govind Pansare on February 20, 2015 and activist journalist Gauri Lankesh on September 5, 2017, in which CBI has found that these incidents may be connected.
“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 said.
Justice Amanullah told Grover that the upshot of the argument is that the petitioner wants the high court to supervise till the end of trial in the case.
Justice Kaul told Grover the high court order he is referring to is of 2021 and is it a case that since then no progress has been made in the investigation.
Grover replied that there has been some progress in the investigation but there has been no headway on the issue of larger conspiracy.
The bench said the high court cannot perpetually monitor the investigation and once the trial of the case has started, it has to end.
It posted the matter for further hearing till second week of July after noting the submission of Grover.
Mukta has challenged the April 18 order of the Bombay High Court refusing to continue monitoring the investigation into the murder case.
On April 18, the high court after nine years of monitoring had said that no further watch on the probe is required and disposed of the petitions including the one filed by Mukta.
In 2014, the high court had transferred the probe to the CBI from Pune police following a petition filed by an activist and another petition filed by Mukta.
In 2021, the special Pune court had framed charges against alleged mastermind of the crime Virendra Sinh Tawde and charged him, along with three others for murder, conspiracy and terror related offences under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Another accused Sanjeev Punalekar was charged with destruction of evidence.
