Veteran Communist leader and rationalist Govind Pansare, who was a prominent face of the anti-toll movement, died on Friday night in Mumbai following complications from gunshot wounds that he suffered on Monday morning.
Pansare was 82. He is survived by wife, Uma, 67, who too received a bullet would during an attack on him.
The couple were attacked on Monday morning during their morning walk in Kolhapur town in Western Maharashtra.
Pansare on Friday evening was airlifted from Kolhapur and rushed to Mumbai’s Breach Candy Hospital.
Pansare and his wife Uma had been shot from a close range, near their residence Ideal Housing Society at around 8.30 am on Monday last, when the couple was returning from a morning walk from the Shivaji University campus at Kolhapur.
While Pansare sustained bullet wounds on the nape of his neck and another minor injury on his hand, wife Uma suffered a bullet injury on her neck.The injured Pansares were immediately rushed to the local Aster Aadhar Hospital. Pansare underwent two surgeries for removal of bullets.
In 2013, anti-superstition activist Dr Narendra Dabholkar was killed in Pune in a similar fashion.