Pune: Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (MANS) will hold a protest on the fourth death anniversary of rationalist Dr Narendra Dabholkar, who was shot dead on August 20, 2013, at Vithal Ramji Shinde bridge (Omkareshwar Bridge). The protest is in the wake of the government’s failure to nab the killers responsible for his murder, who are still at large.
Hameed Dabholkar, son of the slain activist, said, “August 20 will mark the fourth year of the killing of Dr Dabholkar, but his killers remain at large. Shockingly, within just around two and half years after Dr Dabholkar’s murder in Pune, Comrade Govind Pansare was murdered in Kolhapur and soon after this, another rationalist, MM Kalburgi was murdered in Karnataka. However, the murderers are still at large. In all three cases, the police have not reached a conclusion and investigation is not up to the mark”.
Sarang Akolkar and Vinay Pawar, who, according to the government, were involved in the murder of Dr Dabholkar and Dr Pansare, have not yet been arrested due to the laid back attitude of law enforcement agencies. “Our protest is against their inability to catch the culprits, even after four years,” added Hameed Dabholkar.
MANS will start its march from the spot where Dr Dabholkar was murdered. The march will start at 7.20 am from Omkareshwar bridge to Sane Guruji Smarak. The march will pass through Pune Municipal Corporation and Laxmi Road.
Dignitaries like Amol Palekar, Javed Akhtar, Rajdeep Sardesai, Lata Kenkre and others are going to participate in the campaign.
Milind Deshmukh, state secretary of MANS, said, “Lots of youngsters are joining this campaign in wake of the shallow investigations by CBI and government. We are also running a ‘Jawab Do??’ campaign, which has become quite popular on social media”.
