Mumbai, May 10 (Reporter) A Special UAPA court in Maharashtra on Friday awarded life imprisonment to two persons while acquitting three others in the sensational daylight killing of medico and rationalist Narendra Dabholkar in Pune in Aug. 2013/ Special Court, Pune, Judge P. P. Jadhav awarded life sentences to Sharad B. Kalaskar and Sachin P. Andure, and slapped a fine of Rs 5-Lakhs on each of them. The duo would have to undergo imprisonment for an additional one year if they fail to pay the fine. Delivering the much-awaited verdict in the 11-year-old case that grabbed national headlines, the judge in his order acquitted three other accused persons - Sanjeev Punhalekar, ENT surgeon Dr. Virendra Tawade and Vikram Bhave - for lack of evidence. Dabholkar, the founder of the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (MANS, or Maharashtra Eradication of Superstition Committee), was killed by two bike-borne assailants in Pune on 20 August 2013, while he was out on his morning walk. He had carried out a massive crusade against superstitions, fake godmen/women, babas, tantriks, etc, that earned the ire of many including right-wing organisations. The children of the murdered medico, Hamid and Mukta, said they were relieved that the killers were being punished, but would challenge the acquittal of the other thee persons in the Bombay High Court. They also raised questions on how the investigators have still not caught the masterminds behind the killings. They also alleged that there were other lapses in the case which had political ramifications. The case was investigated by multiple agencies, including Pune Police, the Crime Branch, and later the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Welcoming the verdict, the Sanatan Sanstha Spokesperson Chetan Rajhans said that the judegment has absolved the organisation of any involvement in Dabholkar’s killing. “In Dr. Dabholkar’s murder, our innocence has been proved today. It has also busted the ‘urban naxals’ conspiracy to malign the Sanatan Sanstha. After the claims pointing to the involvement of Hindu groups made by the then Maharashtra CM Prithviraj Chavan, the government had clamped down on Hindu advocacy outfits,” said Rajhans. Initially, the case was investigated by the Deccan Police Station and later the Pune City Crime Branch, but with little or no headway, the Bombay High Court handed it over to the CBI in May 2014. The CBI lodged a complaint, started its investigation and identified Dr Tawade as the alleged mastermind behind the killing with purported links with the Sanatan Sanstha. The CBI also named two absconders – Sarang Akolkar and Vinay Pawar – as the alleged shooters but subsequently succeeded in nabbing Kalaskar and Andure who carried out the actual hit. The CBI also nabbed a lawyer Sanjeev Punhalekar, Vikram Bhave, (besides Tawade), and booked them for murder, and conspiracy to murder, under the Arms Act and terror sections of the UAPA, in the first charge-sheet filed in Sept. 2016, and after more investigations, it followed up with supplementary charge-sheets in February and November, 2019. During the long-winded trial, the prosecution examined 20 witnesses while the defence examined two witnesses...////...