Chargesheets in Dabholkar, Pansare cases by next week

The CBI and the Maharashtra CID told the Bombay High Court on Wednesday that they would file their supplementary charge sheets in the killings of rationalists Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare by next week.

The CBI and the state CID are probing the killings of Dabholkar and Pansare, respectively.

CBI counsel Anil Singh told the bench that it had arrested and identified Sachin Andure and Sharad Kalaskar as the two persons who shot at Dabholkar, leading to his death.

Singh said the CBI will file the supplementary charge sheet against the two by February 13.

Ashok Mundargi, the counsel for CID's Special Investigation Team (SIT) that is probing Pansare's killing, also told the court that the agency was going to file its supplementary charge sheet against three more persons arrested in the case by February 12.

Mundargi said after the charge sheet, the CID will "concentrate" on arresting the absconding accused persons in the case.

A bench of justices S C Dharamadhikari and M S Karnik accepted the submissions, but said the court expected much more from the "premiere" probe agencies.

"By the next date, you must make some concrete efforts to arrest the absconding accused," the bench said.

The court particularly told the CBI that it was a "premiere" probe agency and the court as well as the whole world expected much from it.

"These are important cases and the whole world is interested in knowing the outcome of such cases. Today, because of the advent of the social media, the whole world is watching you. It wants to know what is happening in important incidents," it said.

"Because of social media, the world is watching what you are doing in important cases, including the incident in West Bengal," the bench said, while making a passing reference to the recent face-off between the CBI and Kolkata Police in the Saradha chit fund scam case.

Dabholkar was shot dead on August 20, 2013, in Pune while he was on his morning walk, while Pansare was shot at on February 16, 2015, in Kolhapur and he succumbed to his injuries on February 20.

The high court has been hearing pleas filed by the family members of Dabholkar and Pansare seeking a court- monitored probe in both cases.