Bombay HC pulls up Karnataka CID for not cooperating on Dabholkar, Pansare and Kalburgi murders

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Thursday expressed surprise at the failure of CBI and the state CID in obtaining a ballistics report from Karnataka CID which reportedly shows a link between the murders of rationalists Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare and Kannada scholar-writer MM Kalburgi. A division bench of Justices RV More and VL Achiliya was informed that Maharashtra CID, which is probing the Pansare case and CBI, which is investigating the Dabholkar case, had in 2015 handed over bullets and empty bullet shells to the Karnataka CID which is probing the Kalburgi murder case. The objective was to ascertain possible links among the three cases. [caption id=“attachment_2574736” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Bombay High Court. Reuters[/caption] Advocate Abhay Nevgi, appearing for the family members of Dabholkar and Pansare, said on Thursday that as per the media reports the FSL in Bengaluru had claimed that the bullets recovered from the crime spots in these three cases were fired from the same weapon. CBI lawyer Anil Singh and public prosecutor Sandeep Shinde (for CID) told the court that senior officers from both the agencies had written to the Director General of Karnataka CID for ballistics report, but it was yet to come. “Are you pursuing it? How can an agency like CBI which falls under the Centre cannot procure the report? We are surprised that CBI is making such a grievance. We are surprised that Karnataka CID is not cooperating with a prime agency like CBI,” the High Court said. “We direct the Maharashtra DGP and the CBI’s director to take up the issue with the Karnataka DGP and the DG-CID and see to it that the reports are made available at the earliest,” the HC said. Non-cooperation from Karnataka CID was hampering the probe, the judges noted. Maharashtra CID told the court it had filed chargesheet against Sameer Gaikwad, the only arrested accused in the Pansare murder case, and further probe was underway as other accused were yet to be arrested. The court later adjourned the hearing for three weeks. While Dabholkar was killed in Pune in August 2013, Pansare was killed in Kolhapur in 2015. HC is hearing petitions regarding the probe in both the cases. PTI