Narendra Dabholkar, MM Kalburgi, Gauri Lankesh and Govind Pansare — what's the difference between the four? They were fearless voices who stood for ideals like anti-superstition, raised new perspectives on Lingayat history and community, was a strong voice in journalism and stood for intercaste marriage, respectively. What's common? All four were shot dead by unidentified men and their cases continue to drag on in Indian courts.

It was on February 20, 2015 that Govind Pansare, and his wife, died from gun wounds. They were out on their morning walk on February 16 when men on a bike stopped beside them on the pretext of asking for an address. They shot the couple five times before zooming away.

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Pansare was with the Communist Party of India and even ran an organisation encouraging inter-caste marriage and vehemently opposed Nathuram Godse's killing of the Father of the Nation. Months after Dabholkar was killed, Pansare was threatened saying he would meet the same fate, but that did not deter him.

The latest update on Pansare's case is that the Kolhapur sessions court rejected the bail plea of accused Sachin Andure and Bharat Kurane.

We are all for justice
The word 'justice' comes from the Old French word justice or jostise which means “uprightness, equity, vindication of right, administration of law”. Why are we telling you this? Because World Day of Social Justice falls on February 20 as decreed by the United Nations and among all that is unjust in the world, at least the definition of the word justice should be clear.