Mumbai: Samir Gaikwad who hails from Sangali was reportedly arrested from his home town on Tuesday for the murder of 81-year-old activist Govind Pansare. The activist was gunned down outside his house in Sagar Mala locality of Kolhapur city on February 16th this year. According to reports, the accused is an ‘active member’ of Sanatan Sanstha. The accused was produced at a local court in Kolhapur on Wednesday which remanded him to seven days police custody.
Inspector General of Police Sanjay Kumar Verma, heading the SIT, confirmed the development. “Samir is an active member of Sanatan Sanstha since 1998 and has been arrested and remanded to police custody until September 23. The arrest has been made on leads we got through electronic surveillance, ” Verma said.
According to Verma, accused Gaikwad and his family members are associated with Sanatan Sanstha. Gaikwad used to frequently visit the outfit’s asharum in Goa. The police managed to procure CCTV footage of the near by areas but owing to its poor quality they were sent to London for enhancement. New sketches were prepared based on the enhanced footage received from London.
With the various agencies failing to get a breakthrough in the case, in April the State government constituted a SIT to probe the case.
