Safety concerns ‘reasonable’: HC moves defamation suits against Narendra Dabholkar’s son out of Goa

The Bombay High Court has transferred the defamation suits filed by Hindutva organisation Sanatan Sanstha against author Hamid Dabholkar, who is the son of late activist Narendra Dabholkar, and others from Goa to Maharashtra’s Kolhapur, reported India Today on Friday.

The court passed the order on Wednesday after observing that the defendant’s apprehensions about threats to their life were “reasonable and genuine”, according to The Indian Express.

Sanatan Sanstha had filed five defamation suits against Hamid Dabholkar and journalist Nikhil Wagle, among others, between 2017 and 2018 for allegedly blaming the organisation for the murder of Narendra Dabholkar and Communist Party of India leader Govind Pansare.

Narendra Dabholkar, a rationalist and founder of the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti, was shot dead in Pune in August 2013.

Pansare was shot by two unidentified gunmen on his way home from a morning walk in Kolhapur in February 2015. He died four days later.

In 2021, Hamid Dabholkar and Wagle moved the Bombay High Court seeking the transfer of the suits, pending before the civil judge, senior division, in Goa’s Ponda, to any court in Maharashtra, reported The Times of India.

Citing the proximity of the trial court to the Sanatan Sanstha’s headquarters in Goa, they said that they might “meet the same fate” as Narendra Dabholkar if they participate in the proceedings.

On Wednesday, Justice NJ Jamadar of...

Read more