All posts tagged: rationalist

How probe in 2017 Gauri Lankesh murder unlocked leads in 2013 killing of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar | Bangalore News

It was a probe by a Special Investigation Team of the Karnataka Police into the September 5, 2017, shooting of journalist Gauri Lankesh, 55, at her home in Bengaluru that cracked open the CBI investigations in the August 20, 2013 murder in Pune of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar, 69, by members of a right-wing extremist group. On Friday, a sessions court in Pune convicted two persons — Sachin Andhure and Sharad Kalaskar — to life imprisonment following a trial where they were identified as the shooters who gunned down Dabholkar on the morning of August 20, 2013, while he was out for a morning walk in Pune. The court, however, acquitted three conspirators in the case. The ballistic analysis reports for the two murders in Karnataka in 2015 and 2017, the SIT’s arrest of a man who plotted the murders, the discovery of a diary he kept with the coded names of shooters, trainers and logistics providers and the arrest of a shooter and trainer for the 2017 murder by the SIT — all of these …

2 Sanatan Sanstha members convicted of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar’s murder | Latest News India

A special Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) court in Pune on Friday convicted two shooters associated with Sanatan Sanstha of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar’s murder in August 2013 and sentenced them to life in prison. Rationalist Narendra Dabholkar. (HT PHOTO) Additional sessions judge A A Jadhav pronounced Sachin Andure and Sharad Kalaskar guilty under the stringent anti-terror law UAPA. Three other Sanatan Sanstha members Virendrasinh Tawade, Sanjiv Punalekar, and Vikram Bhave were acquitted. Unlock exclusive access to the latest news on India’s general elections, only on the HT App. Download Now! Download Now! “Tawade, Punalekar, and Bhave have been acquitted for want of evidence. The prosecution failed to prove the charges,” said Jadhav. “In the case of Sharad Kalaskar and Sachin Andure, the charges have been proved. They have been held guilty and imprisoned for life.” Two assailants shot dead Dabholkar, 67, a leading light of the nationalist movement, while he was on a morning walk. Dabholkar founded Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti to campaign against superstition and the caste system. His killing was the first in …