Even as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) requested the Bombay High Court to not proceed with the Narendra Dabholkar murder case, Justice SC Dharmadhikari came down heavily on the agency saying, "CBI is saying that we cannot catch a culprit, this is shocking."

He added, "It cannot go on like this. The situation is such that terrorists are at your door step. It's not about a family or an organisation. This can be the fate of anyone. Political leaders, social reformers, no one is safe and we are supposed to rejoice in this?"

The court has ordered the joint director of the CBI to file an affidavit concerning what steps have been taken by the agency to co-ordinate with Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of External Affairs, the Indian embassy in the UK and the authorities there. The court asked the joint director to specify what sincere and genuine efforts were made to get a ballistic report from Scotland Yard.

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The division bench was told by the CBI, which is investigating the murder of Dabholkar in Pune, that it would need some more time to get the ballistic tests that it is seeking from the Scotland Yard. The CBI had said that the three murders of social reformers Dabholkar, Govind Pansare in Kolhapur and MM Kalburgi in Karnataka could have been done by same organisation or individuals. However, even after months have gone by, the report is still awaited which irked the division bench.



PUBLIC INTEREST AT STAKE



Dharmadhikari said, "Whatever you have done is minimal. You have to take it ahead. There is a larger public interest at stake. Reputation of the state is at stake. We are not happy with the routine status report."

The advocate, representing the special investigating team, that is investigating the Pansare murder case while responding told the court, "We can't disclose in an open court what we are going to do but in the next 7-8 days, something will happen in the case." The response irked the bench which said, "We are not going to wait endlessly. You want to be replaced, then will do so right away. The case has to conclude at some point? Don't give an impression that there is no seriousness."

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The public prosecutor promised to talk to the additional director general of police, CID Maharashtra Sanjeev Kumar who in charge of the team and get back to the court on December 16, which is the next date of hearing for the case.

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