The court has the power to transfer an investigation from one investigating agency to another to ensure a thorough investigation and bring the perpetrators to justice.

JUDGEMENT :

Revati Mohite Dere, J.

1. By this interim application, the applicants (applicants Nos. 1 and 2 are the daughter and daughter-in-law of deceased Govind Pansare) seek the following reliefs :

“b. The further investigation to identify masterminds as well as shooters of Comrade Govind Pansare under Criminal Case No. 39 of 2015 may please be transferred form the Respondent SIT to the Maharashtra ATS with immediate effect;

c. The Investigation as to identify masterminds may be handed over to dedicated team of ATS Maharashtra;

d. The Hon’ble Court may please direct the SIT Maharashtra as well as the CBI to provide all necessary cooperation to the Maharashtra ATS for the necessary hand-over of the Criminal Case No.39 of 2015”.

2. Learned counsel for the applicants submits that this Court has been monitoring the investigation of the murder of Comrade Pansare in the aforesaid petition, being Writ Petition No. 3512/2015, and, that the police have been filing reports with respect to the investigation carried out by them, from time to time. He submits that several orders have been passed by this Court since 2015 till date. He submits that as far as Comrade Pansare’s case is concerned, till date, the shooters in the said case have not been arrested, much less the masterminds.

3. The principal ground for seeking transfer of the case, from Special Investigating Team (‘SIT’) which is presently conducting the investigation, to Anti-Terrorist Squad (‘ATS’), Maharashtra, is, that the real break-through in all the four murder cases i.e. in the murder cases of Dr. Dabholkar, Comrade Govind Pansare, Dr. M.M. Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh, came when ATS, Maharashtra investigated the Nallasopara Bomb Blast case in 2019. He submits that although, the Central Bureau of Investigation (‘CBI’) had named Sarang Akolkar and Vinay Pawar (also alleged shooters in the present case) as accused in Dr. Dabholkar case, however, had subsequently dropped their names, at the time of filing of the supplementary charge-sheet on 13th February 2019, as it had transpired that two of the accused arrested in the Nallasopara case i.e. Sharad Kalaskar and Sachin Andhure, were infact the alleged shooters in Dr. Dabholkar case. He further submits that the ATS charge-sheet filed in the Nallasopara’s case on 18th February 2019 reveals the gravity of all the four cases i.e. Comrade Pansare, Dr. Dabholkar, Prof. Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh and that the accused arrested in all the four cases as well as in the Nallasopara Bomb Blast case are front-line accused. He further submits that there exists a common sophisticated network of criminals and organization behind the four murders. In order to place on record, the gravity of the situation in all the four cases, learned counsel relied on an extract from the charge-sheet titled as ^^ng'kroknh Vksyhps mnn"ks**(Objectives of the Terrorist Groups). He further submits that in the Nallasopara case, large number of country-made bombs, gelatin sticks, electronic, non-electronic detonators, gun powder, chemicals, etc. were seized and that the investigation in the said case revealed, that after committing the murders of four rationalists, the mastermind were planning to plant bombs at the Sunburn Festival in December 2017 in Pune. According to the learned counsel, the charge-sheet in the Nallasopara case further reveals that the accused had conducted a recce of the said place (where the Sun Burn festival was to be held) and that before the event, two days training was provided for making bombs. Learned counsel submits that the investigation also revealed that two Bengali speaking trainers had given training to make bombs, however, the plan was dropped, as some of the accused came in front of the cameras. The trainers were, however, not arrested.

4. Mr. Nevagi submits that all the five charge-sheets i.e. in the murder cases of Dr. Dabholkar, Comrade Pansare, Dr. Kalburgi, Gauri Lankesh and Nallasopara Bomb Blast case, reveal that the offences are