A Pune court on Friday convicted two men accused in the murder of anti-superstition activist Narendra Dabholkar and acquitted three others, Bar and Bench reported.

Dabholkar, who was the founder of the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti, was shot dead in Pune on August 20, 2013.

On Friday, Sessions Judge PP Jadhav convicted Sachin Andure and Sharad Kalaskar, sentencing them to life imprisonment along with a penalty of Rs 5 lakh. On the other hand, Virendrasingh Tawade, Vikram Bhave and Sanjeev Punalekar were acquitted.

The judgement was pronounced after a trial that lasted almost three years.

The Pune Police was initially investigating Dabholkar’s murder in 2013. However, the Central Bureau of Investigation took over the inquiry into the case in 2014 following an order from the Bombay High Court.

The investigation agency had subsequently arrested Tawade, a doctor linked to Hindutva group Sanatan Sanstha, in 2016. It had alleged that he was the mastermind of the conspiracy to murder Dabholkar.

According to the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Sanatan Sanstha was opposed to the work carried out by the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti, an organisation working to fight superstition.

In 2018, two other members of Sanatan Sanstha, Kalaskar and Andure, were arrested. The next year, the Central Bureau of Investigation arrested Punalekar and Bhave, who were also linked to the group.

Tawade, Kalaskar, Andure and Bhave were charged under Indian Penal Code sections 302 (murder) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) as well as sections of the Arms Act and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. Punalekar was charged for destroying evidence in the case.

Dabholkar’s murder in 2013 had been followed by the murders of rationalist and Communist Party of India leader Govind Pansare at Maharashtra’s Kolhapur and MM Kalburgi, a Kendriya Sahitya Akademi awardee and anti-superstition activist, at Karnataka’s Dharwad district in 2015.

Investigating agencies have said these three cases as well as the killing of journalist Gauri Lankesh in 2017 were linked and Hindutva groups were behind them.