The Bombay High Court has transferred five defamation suits filed by Goa-based organisation Sanatan Sanstha against rationalist Hamid Dabholkar, senior journalist Nikhil Wagle, and others from the Ponda Civil Court in Goa to the Civil Judge (Senior Division) in Kolhapur. Justice N.J. Jamadar, delivering the verdict on September 3, observed that the applicants’ apprehensions about their safety and the possibility of receiving a fair trial in Ponda were not only genuine but also grounded in past incidents of violence against rationalists and activists who opposed the organisation’s ideology.