The News Minute| August 20, 2014| 7.40 pm IST
It’s been exactly a year since anti-superstition crusader Narendra Dabholkar was shot down on an early morning walk by unidentified gunmen. Today dozens of protestors, including former judges and movie celebrities came together as a tribute to a man who died fighting superstition. The protest march also brings into focus the glaring absence of any breakthrough in CBI investigation into Dabholkar’s death.
Founder of the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (MANS) in 1989, Dabholkar campaigned against self-appointed holy men, criticized “godmen”, often challenging them. Despite facing countless threats and abuses, he rejected police protection.
An August 2013 report in The Times of India reads: ‘Since 1983, he was confronted time and again by many religious and spiritual gurus, and faced several threats and even physical attacks. But he rejected police protection for himself. "If I have to take police protection in my own country from my own people, then there is something wrong with me," he used to say. "I'm fighting within the framework of the Indian constitution and it is not against anyone, but for everyone."’
He made several attempts in 2010 to get the anti-superstition law enacted in the state of Maharashtra but faced criticism from many sides including right-wing political parties like the Bharatiya Janata Party and Shiv Sena. This ordinance was finally passed by Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Prithviraj Chavan a day after his murder and became a law in December, 2013.
Speaking to The News Minute, Hamid Dabholkar, son of Narendra Dabholkar, says that Dr Dabholkar’s biggest achievement is that his work towards eradicating superstitions is being carried forward even after his death. “For 25 years, he worked relentlessly towards the cause of removing superstitions”.
Hamid asserts, “Today is one year since my father was killed. It does hurt us that the masterminds behind his murder still roam free. The bullets that were shot at Dr Dabholkar’s body were not just meant to kill the man, but also to put an end to the beliefs he stood for and the organization he built”.
But the members of his organization are continuing his work and that is our answer to the culprits,”, says Hamid, who is also one members of MANS.
On the morning of August 20, 2013, Dr Dabholkar was shot on the head and chest by two assailants near Omkareshwar temple in Pune.
His assassination caused a state-wide furore.
A report in Outlook quotes Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan as saying, after the murder of Dr Dabholkar, “The forces of intolerance that killed Gandhi have also killed Dabholkar.”
But a year after his cold-blooded murder, Dr Dabholkar’s killers haven’t been caught yet. The investigation, which was being handled by the Pune police initially, was transferred to the CBI in May this year.
The police had arrested two suspected arms dealers Manish Nagori and his aide, Vikas Khandelwal in connection with the murder, but they were let off on bail when the police did not file a chargesheet against them within the stipulated period of 90-days. Read story.
An SIT team was also set up to investigate into the murder, but that too was unable to make any progress in solving the case.
However, soon reports surfaced that the police allegedly hired tantriks ‘to summon Dabholkar’s soul” to inquire from it crucial information about the killing and the perpetrators. Read- Was godman asked to help solve murder of Dabholkar who fought against superstitions? Probe ordered
This was ironic considering Dr Dabholkar fought against superstition throughout his life.
Part of the Outlook report reads, ‘Dabholkar was gunned down on August 20, 2013. And since their investigation was not yielding anything, the then Pune police commissioner Gulabrao Pol took the help of self-proclaimed spiritualists to communicate with Dabholkar’s spirit and ask it for leads!”
Ashish Khetan, the author of the report, also describes vividly his encounters of such sessions. Manish Thakur, a self-styled godman, would ‘conduct a seance to summon Dabholkar’s soul.’
A description of the sessions reads, “Within minutes, Thakur’s body would start shaking violently. It was an indication that Dabholkar’s soul had now entered his body. Thakur’s own soul, meanwhile, would travel for the time being to the water-filled vessel. (His own soul, in fact, was not his own either, he told me. It was of a Shiv Sena rioter he had shot dead in Jogeshwari during the 1992-93 Bombay riots. Thakur took voluntary retirement in 2014). Pol would then question Dabholkar’s soul about his movements a day before the killing, the men he suspected to be behind his killing and the profile of those who shot him. Assisting the assembled in this task were 10-12 other spirits—both good and evil—who were always at his command during the ‘investigation’. Senior Crime Branch officers would then act on the ‘information’ thus generated, pick up ‘suspects’ and interrogate them. They would eventually have to let them off in the absence of any prima facie evidence of their involvement. Pol commissioned many such seances in 2013.”
The author later concluded that the information that came out of such sessions was ‘nothing that a Wikipedia search would not throw up’.
After the media picked up the issue, an embarrassed state government ordered a probe into the reports.
Criticising the inaction of the police, journalist and activist Vinita Deshmukh, says, “Investigations in the Dabholkar murder case are half-hearted and pathetic. Despite the CBI having taken over the case since the last two months, it has not made any crucial headway and seems as casual as the Pune Police which was investigating earlier. No action has also been taken against insinuating postings on a website attacking Dabholkar."
Several pertinent questions remain unanswered. Why have the police not been able to come up with any leads on the murder even after one year of the incident? Are there people or organisations that do not want this murder to be solved? Has the police’s approach to the case initially messed it up to an extent that it may not be possible to solve it anymore?
Hamid Dabholkar says, “We want justice. People want to know who the people responsible behind his murder are. They also want to know whether there are people or organizations that do not want the case to be solved.”
“In the past year, we have spoken to many national as well as state leaders including Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Rajnath Singh. They all gave us assurances that the case would be solved as quickly as possible. And yet, no progress has been made yet”, he adds.
On the first death anniversary of the rationalist leader and activist that Dr Dabholkar was, his assailants continue to roam free. The man may not live among us anymore, but his work and ideas are being carried forward by his family and members of the his organization.