Bail for 6 in Pansare murder case due to long jail stint, delayed trial

The Bombay high court on Wednesday granted bail to six of the 10 men accused in the 2015 murder of Communist Party of India (CPI) leader and trade union activist Govind Pansare, primarily on the grounds of their prolonged pretrial incarceration.

- Karuna Nidhi

MUMBAI:

The six accused—Sachin Andure, Ganesh Miskin, Amit Degvekar, Amit Baddi, Bharat Kurane, and Vasudev Suryavanshi—were arrested between 2018 and 2019.

A single-judge bench of justice Anil S Kilor allowed the bail pleas of the six accused, noting that there was no satisfactory progress in the trial and the unlikelihood of it being concluded soon.

The court also said the bail plea of another accused, Dr Virendrasinh Tawade, would be separately heard later.

On February 16, 2015, Pansare and his wife, Uma, were returning home after having breakfast at a local food joint in Kolhapur when they were shot at by two motorbike-borne assailants.

While Pansare succumbed to the injuries four days later, his wife survived the shooting.