MUMBAI, Sept. 4 -- The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Maharashtra government in a special leave petition filed by Smita and Megha Pansare, kin of late CPI leader Govind Pansare, who was shot by two unidentified men at Kolhapur on 16 February 2015. A bench comprising justice MM Sundresh and justice N Kotiswar Singh was hearing a petition which contends that the probe has failed to make any meaningful progress since the high court transferred it to the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) from the Special Investigation Team in August 2022. Earlier this year, Pansare's daughter and daughter-in-law had filed a petition in the Bombay High Court seeking ATS monitoring by the high court. However, on January 2, the court dismissed the plea, saying oversight was not required. Govind Pansare, a senior leader of the Communist Party of India, lawyer, trade unionist, social activist, and author of the book 'Shivaji Kon Hota?', was shot along with his wife, Uma, during their walk in Kolhapur on February 16, 2015. He succumbed to his injuries four days later. The family alleges that right-wing groups such as the Sanatan Sanstha and Hindu Janjagruti Samiti had long opposed Pansare for his secular and rationalist ideology. Investigations into the murders of Dr Narendra Dabholkar (2013), Prof MM Kalburgi (2015), and journalist Gauri Lankesh (2017) have revealed interconnections, with investigators pointing to common weapons, overlapping accused and a larger conspiracy involving extremist networks, the plea claims. A breakthrough came in 2018 with the seizure of explosives in Nalasopara, where alleged Sanatan Sanstha members were found stockpiling arms, it further adds. Citing these findings, the Pansare family argues that continued court supervision was essential to ensure that the ATS makes genuine efforts to trace the absconding shooters or it otherwise risked derailing justice....