Narendra Dabholkar murder case: Bombay HC grants bail to convict Sharad Kalaskar

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday granted bail to Sharad Kalaskar, a convict in the murder case of rationalist and anti-superstition crusader Narendra Dabholkar in 2013. A bench of Justices Ajey Gadkari and Ranjitsinha Bhonsale granted him bail on a surety of Rs 50,000. The detailed order copy will be available later. The prosecution sought that the court stay the operation of its order, but it was refused. Kalaskar is also facing trial for the killing of communist leader and rationalist Govind Pansare. In October last year, the high court granted him bail in the case. With having secured bail in the Dabholkar case, Kalaskar can now walk out of jail after completing the bail formalities. Dabholkar, 67, the founder of the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti, an anti-superstition organisation, was shot dead by two motorcycle-borne assailants while on a morning walk in Pune on August 20, 2013. Initially, the case was probed by the local police, but following a petition filed in the HC by his daughter Mukta Dabholkar, the investigation was handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in 2014. On May 10, 2024, a sessions court convicted Sachin Andure and Sharad Kalaskar for Dabholkar's murder, sentencing them to life in prison. However, they were acquitted of charges under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and the Arms Act. The court had also acquitted Virendra Singh Tawde, Sanjiv Punalekar, and Vikram Bhave, citing insufficient evidence. Kalaskar challenged his conviction before the high court. Pending a hearing in his appeal, he sought bail through lawyer Shubhada Khot. Mukta Dabholkar had also filed an appeal before the HC, challenging the acquittals and the exclusion of UAPA charges against Andure and Kalaskar. Her plea claimed the murder was part of a larger conspiracy by right-wing extremists. Dabholkar's murder was the first in a chain of similar killings of three other rationalists and activists -- Govind Pansare in Kolhapur in February 2015, Kannada-language scholar MM Kalburgi in Dharwad in August 2015, and journalist Gauri Lankesh in Bengaluru in September 2017.

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