G. Pansare succumbs to bullet injuries

Mumbai, Feb 21: Senior Communist Party of India (CPI) leader, leading light of the anti-toll tax movement and rationalist Govind Pansare, who was shot at in Kolhapur Feb 16, died in Mumbai late Friday. He was 82. Pansare had been airlifted to the city's Breach Candy Hospital Friday evening for further treatment, but succumbed barely a couple of hours later around 11.30 p.m. Dean of Sir J. J. Group of Hospital T. P. Lahane, who was monitoring Pansare's condition, said excessive bleeding in the lungs had resulted in his death. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, several of his cabinet colleagues, top leaders from the Bharatiya Janata Party, Shiv Sena, Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, CPI, RPI and others visited the hospital since early Saturday and paid homage to Pansare. "Maharashtra has lost a progressive leader. The state will always remember his contribution for giving justice to the poor and depressed classes," Fadnavis said. An autopsy was completed on his body Saturday and it was later airlifted to Kolhapur for the last rites. Kolhapur police have formed 10 special teams to nab the killers of Pansare, but so far there has been no breakthrough in the case. Pansare's body would be kept for public 'darshan' in Kolhapur till 2 p.m. before the funeral.