The Bombay high court on Thursday asked petitioner Ketan Tirodkar to explain the provisions under which the murder case of rationalist Dr Narendra Dabholkar could be brought under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and transferred to the National Investigative Agency (NIA).
A division bench of Justice P.V. Hardas and Justice P.N. Deshmukh was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by journalist Mr Tirodkar. He had filed a petition this month seeking transfer of the case to the NIA. His argument is that the case attracts UAPA, and it should be transferred to NIA, which often deals with UAPA cases.
His petition has alleged that Dr Dabholkar had been receiving threats for quite some time and the Maharashtra government was aware of this. The Pune police could have prepared a threat perception report and monitored his movements, it said. The government need not wait for the person’s approval for providing him/her with security, and about 90 per cent of the persons who are provided security do not really need it, the petition added.
Dr Dabholkar was shot dead in Pune on August 20 by some unidentified persons. The PIL claimed that the Pune police has come across some information about the possibility of involvement of astrology practitioners against whom Dr Dabholkar was about to start an agitation.
It suspected that these people were in touch with Hindu right wing extremists who blamed him for hurting Hindu religious sentiments, it stated. The PIL cited the example of the Malegaon blast case, where Maharashtra police “acting on conventional notions of Muslim involvement” booked “innocent” persons, and the “real”
culprits, members of a Hindu extremist group, were held only after the NIA took over.
The petition will come up for further hearing on September 24.