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On 18 August 2026, the Bombay High Court stayed the life sentence given to Sachin Andure, who was convicted by a special court for the murder of Narendra Dabholkar, the rationalist, activist and founder of the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti. The bench granted him bail, citing “extremely weak” evidence and that Andure had a fair chance of acquittal in his pending appeal.
On the morning of 20 August 2013, 67-year-old Dabholkar was shot dead in Pune by two men. More than a decade later, on 10 May 2024, a special CBI court in Pune convicted Sharad Kalaskar and Andure of his murder and sentenced them to life imprisonment, while acquitting the alleged mastermind Virendrasinh Tawde, a lawyer named Sanjiv Punalekar, and his assistant, Vikram Bhave, of murder, criminal conspiracy, and other charges. The court also found the three accused not guilty under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. The Dabholkar family filed an appeal in the high court challenging the acquittal of the three accused.
Andure and Kalaskar filed separate appeals challenging their convictions. Kalaskar was granted bail by the Bombay High Court in April. Dabholkar’s family and the MANS opposed the bail application in April.
In the years following Dabholkar’s murder, the thinker and writer Govind Pansare, the intellectual and activist MM Kalburgi, and the journalist Gauri Lankesh were killed in a similar fashion. Their murders were shown to be part of a conspiracy to suppress rational and progressive voices. The perpetrators of these murders were associated with the Hindu right-wing organisation Sanatan Sanstha, which consistently opposed Dabholkar’s rational views and called his campaign—which included enacting a law against superstitions in Maharashtra—anti-Hindu. Following Dabholkar’s death, the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly passed the Maharashtra Prevention and Eradication of Human Sacrifice and other Inhuman, Evil and Aghori Practices and Black Magic Act in 2013, which remains in effect today.
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