Nearly 11 years after rationalist Dr Narendra Dabholkar was shot dead in Pune, a special court on Friday convicted his two assailants and sentenced them to life imprisonment for the murder, and acquitted three others, including alleged key conspirator Virendrasinh Tawde, for want of evidence.

Reading out the order in a packed courtroom, Additional Sessions Judge (Special Court) P P Jadhav, presiding over UAPA cases, said the prosecution had proved the charges of murder and conspiracy against shooters Sachin Andure and Sharad Kalaskar.

The court sentenced them to life imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh each.

The court acquitted three accused, ENT surgeon Tawde, Sanjeev Punalekar and Vikram Bhave, for want of evidence.

Dabholkar (67), an anti-superstition crusader, was shot dead by two motorcycle-borne men while he was on a morning walk on Omkareshwar Bridge in Pune city on August 20, 2013.

The court observed that some sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), an anti-terror law, were invoked in the case, but due to the competent officer's negligence, these charges were not proved.

The judge said though Tawde was charged as the conspirator in the case and there was ample scope for doubt against him, the prosecution had failed to convert the suspicion into evidence, which is why he was acquitted of all charges.

"In the case of Bhave and Punalekar, even if there is scope for suspicion, there is no evidence, and therefore, both have been acquitted of all charges for want of evidence," the judge said.

Andure and Kalaskar were charged with shooting Dabholkar dead, and charges under sections 302 (murder) and 34 (common intention) were proved beyond doubt, he said.

The judge further said there is a provision for capital punishment and life imprisonment for these sections and asked the defence and prosecution to put forth their arguments.

Appearing for the accused, advocate Virendra Ichalkaranjikar said the case did not fall under the rarest of the rare category, to which public prosecutor Prakash Suryawanshi said the prosecution did not seek capital punishment.

After hearing the brief arguments, the judge sentenced Andure and Kalaskar to life imprisonment and fined them Rs 5 lakh each.

The judge also observed that some statements were made during the trial justifying Dabholkar's killing and said it was regrettable.

"It is pertinent to point out that any person's murder is an unfortunate thing. However, some statements came from the defence counsel during the trial justifying the act, which was regrettable, and the advocates of the accused should think about this," he said.

Reacting to the judgement, Dabholkar's daughter Mukta said the masterminds of the murder were still at large, and they would appeal against the order in the high court.

His son Hamid Dabholkar said if the masterminds of the killing were not brought to justice, such incidents would be repeated.

It is evident from the chargesheet that Dabholkar was murdered for ideological reasons, he said.

The prosecution examined 20 witnesses, while the defence examined two witnesses during the trial.

The Pune police initially investigated the case. The CBI took over the probe in 2014 following a Bombay High Court order and arrested Tawde linked to the Hindu right-wing organisation Sanatan Sanstha, in June 2016.

According to the prosecution, Tawde was one of the masterminds of the murder.

Sanatan Sanstha, to which Tawde and some of the other accused were linked, was opposed to the work carried out by Dabholkar's organisation, the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (committee for eradication of superstition, Maharashtra), it claimed.

The CBI first named fugitives Sarang Akolkar and Vinay Pawar as the shooters in its chargesheet. But later it arrested Sachin Andure and Sharad Kalaskar and claimed in a supplementary chargesheet that they had shot Dabholkar.

Subsequently, the central agency arrested advocate Sanjeev Punalekar and Vikram Bhave as alleged co-conspirators.

During the trial, advocate Virendra Ichalkaranjikar had questioned the CBI's flip-flop over the shooters' identity.

The accused were booked under Indian Penal Code sections 120 B (conspiracy ), 302 (murder), relevant sections of the Arms Act, and section 16 (punishment for terrorist act ) of the UAPA.

While Tawde, Andure and Kalaskar are in jail, Punalekar and Bhave are on bail.

Dabholkar's murder was followed by the murders of three other rationalists/activists in the next four years: communist leader Govind Pansare (Kolhapur, February 2015), Kannada scholar and writer M M Kalburgi (Dharwad, August 2015) and journalist Gauri Lankesh (Bengaluru, September 2017).

It was suspected that the culprits in these four cases were linked.

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