Bombay HC Grants Bail to Sachin Andure in Narendra Dabholkar Murder Case
The Bombay High Court has granted bail to convict Sachin Andure in the murder case of rationalist Dr Narendra Dabholkar, who was shot dead near Omkareshwar Bridge in Pune in August 2013. A division bench of Justice Sarang Kotwal and Justice Ranjitsinha Bhonsale suspended Andure's life sentence pending appeal, citing "extremely weak" evidence presented by the prosecution.
The court observed significant flaws in witness identification. One eyewitness identified Andure in court for the first time in March 2022, eight years and seven months after the shooting, while another witness identified him in November 2022 after nine years and three months. During the initial investigation in December 2018, both witnesses had identified only the photograph of co-accused Sharad Kalaskar, and no test identification parade was ever conducted for Andure.
The bench also scrutinized the extra-judicial confession that Andure allegedly made to witness Somnath Dhayade. The court noted that Dhayade disclosed the confession to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on August 23, 2018—more than five years after it allegedly occurred and five days after Andure’s arrest on August 18, 2018. Furthermore, the CBI officer who recorded the statement was not examined in court, and another individual named Devdikar, to whom the information was supposedly shared, was also not examined, leaving the testimony uncorroborated.
The court also highlighted a ballistics report (Exhibit-495), which indicated that the bullets recovered from Dabholkar’s body matched a country-made pistol seized from two other suspects, Khandelwal and Nagori. Both had been arrested on the day of the incident but were later released through a closure report under Section 169 of the CrPC, with the investigating agency offering no explanation for the discrepancy.
Observing that there were fair chances of Andure's acquittal on appeal, the bench ordered his release on bail on a personal bond of ₹50,000. Under the bail conditions, Andure must report to the Deccan police station on the first Monday of each month for the first year, and thereafter on the first Monday of every third calendar month.
Andure had been in custody for approximately six years following his 2018 arrest. A special court convicted him alongside Kalaskar on May 10, 2024, under Section 302 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 3(25) of the Indian Arms Act, while acquitting three others. Kalaskar was earlier granted bail pending appeal on April 29, 2026.
