MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Tuesday granted bail to Sachin Andure, who was convicted in the 2013 murder case of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar.A bench of justices Sarang Kotwal and Ranjitsinha Bhonsale also suspended the life sentence imposed on Andure by a sessions court in 2024.A copy of the detailed order was not yet available.Andure, who is also facing trial for the killing of activist Govind Pansare, can now walk out of jail after securing bail in both cases.Dabholkar, 67, 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.The case was initially investigated by the local police, but following a petition filed in the HC by his daughter Mukta Dabholkar, the probe was handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in 2014.The prosecution had alleged that Andure was one of the shooters.On May 10, 2024, a sessions court convicted Andure and Sharad Kalaskar for Dabholkar’s murder and sentenced them to life imprisonment.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.Andure had approached the HC with an appeal challenging his conviction and filed an interim application seeking bail and suspension of his life sentence. The HC allowed the application on Tuesday.Dabholkar’s daughter Mukta had also appealed before the HC against the acquittals in the case and the exclusion of UAPA charges against Andure and Kalaskar.In her plea, she alleged that the murder was part of a larger conspiracy by right-wing extremists.Dabholkar’s murder was the first in a series 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.(With inputs from PTI)
