Attack on Pansare: ATS, Mumbai police helping with probe

Teams of Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad and Mumbai police have been roped in to assist the Kolhapur police in the probe on the attack on the veteran communist leader Govind Pansare and his wife.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis told reporters on Wednesday that as Pansare's wife, Uma, was now fully conscious and able to speak, police were preparing sketches of suspects on the basis of information provided by her.

A team of Mumbai police's crime branch, which usually probes high-profile cases in the city, was conducting a parallel inquiry and had left for Kolhapur to co-ordinate with the local investigators, police sources said.

The crime branch, known for cracking several challenging cases, will provide assistance to Kolhapur police in analysing the phone call records, among other things.

Kolhapur unit of ATS, also conducting a parallel inquiry, was tapping its own informers network, sources added.

Pansare -- who was in the forefront of anti-road toll agitation -- and his wife were shot by unidentified persons near their house in Kolhapur on Monday morning.

Doctors treating them said condition of both of them was improving.

Earlier, talking to reporters on Wednesday at the state secretariat in Mumbai, the Chief Minister said Pansare's wife had now recovered enough to talk. "Based on her statement, sketches of the attackers are being prepared," he said.

Saying that there was similarity in the attack on Pansare and that on the rationalist Narendra Dabholkar, Fadnavis said however it was too early to say if the two incidents were linked.