Killing of liberal thinkers a dangerous trend: Bombay High Court

Referring to the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh in Bengaluru while hearing a petition relating to the probe into the murders of rationalists Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare, the Bombay High Court observed that such incidents show that “rival opinion is not tolerated”, and that India would get a bad name if such cases were not checked.

Urging the investigating agencies to do more into the two cases, the court said, “The absconding accused has not been traced and one more incident has taken place, which shows rival opinion is not tolerated. Liberal and like-minded people are targets of these organisations. The future of this nation is at stake, we all will have to learn to respect constitutional values, freedom of speech. If we don’t, then the future of this nation is going to be affected.”