The Bombay High Court on Thursday handed over the probe into the murder of Congress leader Pawanraje Nimbalkar to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The Bombay High Court on Thursday handed over the probe into the murder of Congress leader Pawanraje Nimbalkar to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The court has directed the police to hand over all documents connected to the case to the CBI, which has to complete the probe expeditiously.
Nimbalkar, a Congress leader, was shot dead along with his driver by two persons on June 3, 2006, while he was heading for Pune on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. Nimbalkar’s wife, Anandibai, had moved court alleging police inaction in the case. She had requested that the case be handed over to the CBI.
She alleged that Nimbalkar’s political rival, Congressman Padamsinh Patil, had hatched the conspiracy to murder him. She claimed that since Patil is a former irrigation minister, and his son Rana Jagjitsinh Patil is the current agriculture and industry minister for state, “the failure on part of the investigating agency is not unexpected”.
Criticising the police for its “faulty” and “one-sided investigation” that failed to inspire the court’s confidence, justices SB Mhase and VK Tahilramani said the police had ignored the theory that Vicky Malhotra, an aide of gangster Chhota Rajan, was allegedly involved in Nimbalkar’s murder. Malhotra’s name cropped up in the narco-analysis of Tanaji Patil, a suspect in the case.
According to police records, Malhotra was in Thane jail on the day of the murder. However, he was produced before a magistrate in Mumbai on that day in connection with another case. The court had asked the prosecution to submit all records of Malhotra being taken to Mumbai and back. In addition, the court wanted a statement of the police driver who drove Malhotra both ways. There is a possibility that Malhotra had a hand in the murder, the court said.
The judges said that while they did not doubt the integrity of the police officers, they were surprised that vital facts had not been investigated. They said that in a democracy when matters are taken up regarding people connected with the administration, then it is in the interest of justice that the probe be handed over to the CBI.
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