AMN /
Special Investiga
tion Team SIT of Kolhapur Police has arrested a suspect in the Govind Pansare murder case from Sangli today. The suspect, Samir Gaikwad a meber of Sanatan Sanstha was produced in the Kolhapur court and has been remanded to 7 day police custody.
Giving the details in a press conference today Kolhapur, SIT Chief Sanjay Kumar said, Samir is an activist of Sanatan Sanstha. He is suspected to be involved in the murder and may prove an important link to nab the other conspirators in the case. The police have raided residence of Gaikwad in Sangli and confiscated some important documents, Kumar added.
Govind Pansare
SIT Chief said that Sameer and his entire family is associated with the Sanatan Sanstha. He has been the Full timer of this organization from 1998. He has told Police that his wife is presently at Sanstha’s ashram in Goa. Mr. Kumar refused to divulge more details of his wife saying she is not an accused.
Sanatan Sanstha has been in controversy for its extreme right wing ideology and was on radar from last two years, after the murder of Rationalist Narendra Dabholkar in Pune. Activists of this organisation have also been arrested for their role in a blast in Thane’s Gadkari theatre. Its members were also arrested in another blast case in Madgaon, Goa.
Gaikwad was detained around 8.30 pm on Tuesday night from the road opposite his house in Sangli, and was taken to Kolhapur for further interrogation. He was later arrested at 4.30 am today and presented to the court.
SIT Chief Sanjay Kumar further said that arrest does not mean that case is solved. He said that police do claim that he is the killer. We have arrested him after almost six months of intense tracking and monitoring on the basis of technical surveillance carried out by our team.
He said that the accused does not have a previous police record. He however refused to link the arrest with the ongoing investigation in the murder of noted Kannada progressive thinker, writer and scholar M. M. Kalburgi in Dharwad, who was shot dead last month, or with that of Narendra Dabholkar.
Govind Pansare, a veteran social activist and CPI leader, was attacked by two persons on February 16 this year near his residence in Kolhapur.