A Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe has revealed that journalist Shashikant Warishe was deliberately run over by real estate dealer Pandharinath Amberkar in Maharashtra in February.
According to the chargesheet filed by the SIT, Amberkar was furious with Warishe over a story in the Mahanagari Times, a Marathi daily.
“The protesting farmers against the proposed oil refinery asked the chief minister and deputy minister whose photographs are displayed along with the CM and DCM on banners. The CM and DCM should check the background of this particular person. He is a serious criminal,” stated the story, referring to Amberkar.
Amberkar supported the setting up of the Ratnagiri Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd (RRPCL) in Barsu, which was opposed by a section of locals.
On February 7, he drove his Mahindra Thar on the wrong side of the road at Khondwali in Rajapur tehsil, then intentionally and deliberately mowed down Warishe's Activa two-wheeler while the scribe was waiting at a petrol pump in Ratnagiri district, dragging him for several metres before fleeing from the spot. Warishe was taken by locals to Kolhapur hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.
As per the chargesheet, Amberkar has been charged under IPC sections 301 (imprisonment for life punishment for the crime of death) and 201(Causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender) and Maharashtra media person and media institutions (prevention of violence and damage or loss to property) Act 2017, section 4.
Earlier, various journalist associations in Mumbai staged a protest near Mantralaya over Warishe's murder and demanded that the case be fast-tracked. They also demanded that the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act be invoked in the case.
