Witness statement recorded after 3 yrs, can’t deny bail: HC

Pune/Kolhapur: Bombay HC’s Kolhapur bench has ruled that a statement recorded three-and-a-half years after rationalist Govind Pansare’s killing cannot justify cancelling the bail granted to ENT surgeon and prime accused Virendrasinh Tawde in 2018.Justice Shivkumar Dige, in an order dated Oct 14 and uploaded Friday, held there were “no new developments or changed circumstances” warranting cancellation of Tawde’s bail. “No doubt, the bail can be cancelled if there were new developments or changed circumstances…”Tawde was arrested in 2016 and named a key conspirator in the Feb 2015 murder of Pansare in Kolhapur. He was granted bail by a sessions court on Feb 18, 2018.

Six years later, on July 16, 2024, the same court ordered his re-arrest citing a statement by witness Sagar Lakhe, recorded on Sept 17, 2018. Pansare’s grandson Kabeer, who appeared for his mother Megha in an intervention plea, said they would challenge in SC “the HC’s bail order as we feel the sessions court cancelled the bail on merits”.

“We’re not relying on just one witness; there is more pertinent material on record which HC seems not inclined to look upon.

The gravity of the case lies in the fact that murders of all rationalists — Narendra Dabholkar (2013), Pansare (2015), MM Kalburgi (2015), and Gauri Lankesh (2017) — are connected in one way or the other, and the charge sheets filed show so,” said Kabeer, also a laweyr.Justice Dige said the case did not meet any of the four grounds for cancelling bail: misuse of liberty, breach of bail conditions, ignorance of statutory limits, or fraud. He said the allegation against Tawde was limited to conspiracy and co-accused with the same role had been granted bail. HC also cited contradictions in eyewitness accounts.