Key accused in Govind Pansare murder case dies in Maharashtra's Sangli
Mumbai (PTI): Right-wing activist Sameer Gaikwad, accused of being a "co-conspirator" in the 2015 murder of rationalist and author Govind Pansare, died in Maharashtra's Sangli district in the early hours of Tuesday, officials said.
Gaikwad, 43, an alleged member of Sanatan Sanstha, was arrested in 2015 in the case. He was granted bail in 2017 and had been staying at his residence in Sangli.
He was rushed to a hospital where doctors declared him dead on arrival early on Tuesday, a police official said without giving more details.
Prima facie, Gaikwad died due to cardiac arrest, but police were waiting for the postmortem report to ascertain the exact cause of death, he said.
There is nothing suspicious, the official added.
Pansare was shot at on February 16, 2015, in Maharashtra’s Kolhapur and succumbed to his injuries a few days later on February 20.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT), which was subsequently formed to investigate Pansare's murder, arrested Gaikwad in the case in September 2015.
In its chargesheet, the SIT had mentioned Gaikwad as a "co-conspirator" and alleged that he, along with other Sanatan Sanstha activists, eliminated Pansare.
The SIT had also conducted raids at Sanatan Sanstha's ashram in Panvel, Navi Mumbai, in connection with the case.
Pansare and his wife were returning home from their morning walk in the Samrat Nagar area of Kolhapur when two motorbike-borne men fired multiple rounds at them before fleeing in 2015.
Initially, the Rajarampuri police station in Kolhapur handled the case.
The investigation was later transferred to the SIT under the supervision of the Additional Director General of Police (CID), Maharashtra.
Dissatisfied with the lack of progress in tracing the shooters, Pansare’s family had sought the case’s transfer to the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS).
On August 3, 2022, the HC transferred the probe to the ATS, observing there was “no headway” or “breakthrough” in the case.
Of the 12 accused identified, nine have so far been arrested, and four supplementary chargesheets have been filed.
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Screenwriter Salim Khan on ventilator support and stable, say doctors
Mumbai (PTI): Veteran screenwriter Salim Khan suffered a brain haemorrhage which has been tackled, is on ventilator support as a safeguard and stable, doctors treating him said on Wednesday, a day after he was admitted to the Lilavati Hospital here.
The 90-year-old, one half of the celebrated Salim-Javed duo which scripted films such as "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don" with Javed Akhtar, is in the ICU and recovery might take some time given his age.
"His blood pressure was high for which we treated him and we had to put him on a ventilator because we wanted to do certain investigations. Now the ventilator was put as a safeguard so that his situation doesn't get worse. So it is not that he is critical," Dr Jalil Parkar told reporters.
"We did the investigations that were required and today we have done a small procedure on him, I will not go into the details. The procedure done is called DSA (digital subtraction angiography). The procedure has been accomplished, he is fine and stable and shifted back to ICU. By tomorrow, we hope to get him off the ventilator. All in all, he is doing quite well," he added.
Asked whether he suffered a brain haemorrhage, the doctor said, "Unko thoda haemorrhage hua tha, which we’ve tackled. No surgery is required.
As concern over Khan's health mounted, his children, including superstar Salman Khan and Arbaaz Khan, daughter Alvira, and sons-in-law Atul Agnihotri and Aayush Sharma, have been seen outside the hospital along with other well-wishers. His long-time partner Akhtar was also seen coming out of the hospital.
Khan, a household name in the 70s and 80s, turned 90 on November 24 last year. It was the day Dharmendra, the star of many of his films, including "Sholay", "Seeta aur Geeta" and "Yaadon Ki Baraat", passed away.
Hailing from an affluent family in Indore, Khan arrived in Mumbai in his 20s with dreams of stardom. He was good looking and confident he would make a mark in the industry as an actor. But that did not happen. And then, after struggling for close to a decade and getting confined to small roles in films, he changed lanes.
He worked as an assistant to Abrar Alvi and soon met Akhtar to form one of Hindi cinema's most formidable writing partnerships. They worked together on two dozen movies with most of them achieving blockbuster status.
Other than "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don", Khan and Akhtar also penned "Trishul", "Zanjeer", "Seeta Aur Geeta", "Haathi Mere Saathi", "Yaadon Ki Baarat" and "Mr India".
