Pansare murder: Virendra Tawde seeks to be impleaded as respondent

Accused in the murder cases of Narendra Dabholkar Virendra Tawde has approached the Bombay HC seeking to be impleaded as a respondent.

Mumbai, Dec 11: Virendra Tawde, accused in the murder cases of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar and activist Govind Pansare, has approached the Bombay High Court seeking to be impleaded as a respondent in the petition filed by Maharashtra government seeking stay in the Pansare trial.

The state CID, probing the Pansare murder case, had earlier this year filed a petition in the high court seeking stay on the trial till a forensic report from Scotland Yard Police laboratory was obtained.

The impending report pertains to a bullet and some cartridges recovered in the Pansare murder case that were sent by CBI, which is probing the Dabholkar case, to the UK for forensic tests last month. The CID petition had earlier sought the high court to stay the framing of charges against the arrested accused, Sameer Gaikwad.

The HC had then granted the stay. Tawde, an alleged member of right wing group Sanathan Sanstha, who was arrested on June 10 this year by CBI in the Dabholkar case, was recently also arraigned as accused by CID in the Pansare case. Following this, Tawde filed an application in the high court seeking to be included as respondent in CID petition.

"If the applicant is not joined as a respondent in the petition, there would be grave and irreparable harm and prejudice to the interests of the applicant," said the application filed recently.

The CBI, through the forensic reports, wants to ascertain if there is any link between the Pansare, Dabholkar and Prof M M Kalburgi murder cases.

The high court had in June this year granted interim stay on the trial against Gaikwad. While Dabholkar was murdered in Pune on August 20, 2013, Pansare was shot on February 16, 2015 in Kolhapur. He died on February 20. Prof Kalburgi was murdered on August 30 last year.

PTI