The Bombay High Court on Tuesday granted bail to Sachin Prakashrao Andure, convicted for the 2013 murder of rationalist Dr Narendra Dabholkar. .A Bench of Justices SV Kotwal and RR Bhonsale invoked the principle of parity with co-convict Sharad Bhausaheb Kalaskar. It also suspended Andure's life sentence pending the final disposal of his appeal against conviction.“There are fair chances of Andure’s acquittal in his appeal,” the court noted..The division bench took critical note of glaring evidentiary gaps in the Central Bureau of Investigation’s case. It dissected the testimony of the prosecution’s key eyewitnesses and observed that dock identification conducted over eight years after the incident carried negligible weight. .The court highlighted that no formal Test Identification Parade (TIP) was conducted and witnesses failed to identify Andure in photographs shown during investigation. “The identification of Andure by prosecution witnesses is extremely weak. They have identified Andure for the first time after the incident after over 8 years; that is quite a long period for identification. Both the witnesses had not identified the photograph of the present Applicant,” the court observed. .The court similarly dismantled the prosecution’s reliance on an uncorroborated extra-judicial confession allegedly made to a local restaurant owner. It noted that the witness remained silent for five years and only disclosed the information after Andure’s arrest in 2018. “The extra judicial confession is also another extremely weak piece of evidence. There is no corroboration to his evidence,” the court observed. .The court also expressed sharp concern over the unaddressed forensic contradiction regarding murder weapon. “There is a loose end regarding the recovery of the weapon and the ballistic expert’s opinion. No explanation is offered by the investigating agency,” the order noted..Andure was released on grounds similar to his co-convict Kalaskar. In an order passed on April 29 this year, Kalaskar was granted bail by a co-ordinate bench of the High Court. The Bench noted that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) failed to conduct a TIP. This rendered the identification of the accused through photos shown while in custody to be legally compromised. The Court had also noted that Kalaskar had served over seven-and-a-half years in custody with little prospect of the appeal being heard in the near future.Now both the convicts in the case have been granted bail till the pendency of the their appeal. .The case arises from 2013 when Dr Narendra Dabholkar was shot dead on a bridge in Pune. The probe was initially handled by the Pune Police before being transferred to the CBI in 2014 following High Court directions. The trial commenced in September 2021. In May 2024, a Pune sessions court convicted Kalaskar and Andure of murder, handing them life sentences.However, the trial court acquitted three co-accused for lack of evidence. Those included alleged mastermind Dr Virendrasinh Tawade, Advocate Sanjiv Punalekar and activist Vikram Bhave for lack of evidence. All individuals were linked to the right-wing charitable trust, Sanatan Sanstha.Appeals against these acquittals are also pending in the High Court..Condemnable that killers of Narendra Dabholkar justified the act by labelling him anti-Hindu: Pune court.Senior advocate Niteen Pradhan with advocates Shubhada Khot, Siddh Vidya, Danish Patel, Virendra Ichalkaranjikar, Sachin Kanse and Jyoti Ghorpade appeared for Andure.Advocates Amit Singh, Saba Shaikh, Bhushan Bhadgale, Priyasha Pawar, Janhavi Jadhav and Ashlesha Suryawanshi and Omkar Nevgi appeared for Dabholkar’s kin.Special public prosecutor Amit Munde with advocates Jai Vohra and Shantanu Nakashe appeared for CBI.Additional public prosecutor Gauri S Rao appeared for State..[Read order]
