Narendra Dabholkar murder: 2 accused sent to life imprisonment, 3 others acquitted

 Dr Dabholkar, was shot dead by two bike-borne assailants on the VR Shinde bridge in Pune on the morning of August 20 in 2013. A special court in Pune convicted Sachin Andure and Sharad Kalaskar, sentencing them to life for the murder of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar, while acquitting three others.

After more than ten years since Dr Narendra Dabholkar's murder, a Special UAPA Court in Pune sentenced two of the defendants to life in prison and acquitted three others.

The court acquitted ENT surgeon Dr. Virendrasinh Tawade, Mumbai-based lawyer Sanjeev Punalekar, and his aide Vikram Bhave due to a lack of evidence. The court sentenced Sachin Andure and Sharad Kalaskar, the assailants, to life in prison.

Narendra Dabholkar, who headed the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti, was shot dead in Pune on August 20, 2013, allegedly by the members of a fringe group.

Dabholkar's murder in Pune had been followed by the shooting of Govind Pansare in February 2015 and MM Kalburgi in Kolhapur in August the same year. Gauri Lankesh was shot dead outside her home in Bengaluru in September 2017.

He had been running the Samiti for many years when he published various books and undertook workshops for the eradication of superstition. After his murder in 2013, amidst much public outcry, the case was transferred from the Pune Police to the CBI by the Bombay High Court, on the petitions filed by Dabholkar's daughter and son. The petitions concerning the case were still being heard by the court.