'The Rationalist Murders': A book questioning the probe into murder of rationalists released

Book which questions the probe into murder of rationalists released

The Rationalist Murders, a book that points out serious inconsistencies and problems in the investigations of four rationalists, was released in Mumbai.

The book deals with the investigations into the murders of rationalist Dr Narendra Dabholkar, Communist leader Govind Pansare, Kannada writer Prof Malleshappa Madivalappa Kalburgi and journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh.

The Rationalist Murders: Diary of Ruined Investigation has been penned by Dr Amit Thadhani and was released at the Shanmukhananda Hall at Sion in Mumbai on Saturday evening.

“As you are aware, there are serious inconsistencies and problems in the investigations of these murders - to the extent that the investigating agencies have been going out of their way to delay the trials of the accused. I have poured through tens of thousands of pages of chargsheets, newspaper articles and reports of various government agencies in this regard to bring light on this issue. It seems that in their eagerness to connect the four murders with each other, the agencies have ended up deeply undermining all four investigations,” Dr Thadani claimed.

According to him, every 2-3 years some people are caught in the case of killing of atheists and they are said to be the murderers.

“Each time eye-witnesses were produced to implicate them, each time the killers were changed, the weapons were changed, the 'forensic lab' reports of the weapons were different. Millions of rupees were spent by importing foreign systems to detect weapons in Thane Bay. The charge sheet said that, the spare parts of the weapon were separated and thrown into the creek, while a search in the creek claimed to have recovered a complete pistol,” he said.

“This is not a joke, but all such conflicting incidents are in the charge sheet. In this regard, rulers had declared the people of Godseist ideology guilty even before the investigation. Due to this political interference, the police conducted a single-minded investigation. Instead of knowing the truth, some media also contributed to mislead the investigation by doing a 'media trial'. This had a major impact on the investigation. Innocent people belonging to Hindu organizations have been tortured and kept in jail for many years,” he said.

The four murders

*Dr Narendra Dabholkar (67) rationalist and anti-superstition activist, who was founder of Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (MANS), was shot dead on 20 June, 2013, by two unidentified gunmen near Omkareshwar temple in Pune.

* Comrade Govind Pansare (82), a rationalist and leader of Communist Party of India (82) and his wife, Uma were attacked by two motor-cycle borne youths on 16 February, 2015, near his home in Kolhapur, and he died four days later on 20 February, 2015, at the Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai.

* Prof Malleshappa Madivalappa Kalburgi ( 76), noted scholar and writer, had run-ins with right-wing Hindutva groups over the years, was shot dead on 30 August, 2015, by unidentified gunman at the former's residence in the Kalyan Nagar locality of Dharwad.

* Gauri Lankesh (55), journalist-turned-activist was shot dead outside her residence in Bengalaru on 5 September, 2017. She worked as an editor in Lankesh Patrike, a Kannada weekly started by her father P. Lankesh, and ran her own weekly called Gauri Lankesh Patrike.