Top court raps K’taka govt for ‘doing nothing’ in Kalburgi case
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court criticised the Karnataka government on Monday for a lack of progress in the murder investigation of Kannada scholar MM Kalburgi, who was gunned down by unidentified assailants in 2015, saying the state was “doing nothing and just fooling around”.
A bench of justices RF Nariman and Navin Sinha gave two weeks to Karnataka to file a status report on the investigation and indicated that it might transfer the case it is hearing to the Bombay high court, where a public interest litigation (PIL) is pending seeking an investigation into the larger conspiracy behind the killing of activists, which include Kalburgi, rationalist Narendra Dabholkar and communist leader Govind Pansare.
The court’s comments came while hearing a petition by Kalburgi’s widow, Uma Devi Kalburgi, who has demanded a special investigation team (SIT) probe and argued it would be better if the case were transferred to the Bombay high court for further supervision. The bench wanted the Karnataka government to apprise the court with the status of the investigation but was not satisfied with the response. “What have you (Karnataka government) done so far? Nothing. You are just fooling around. How long will you take for completing the investigation? Tell us or we will pass orders,” the bench said.
Advocate Devadatt Kamat, who was appearing for the state government, said he will have to take instructions on the time period for completing the investigation. “You take instruction. Then we will send the matter to Bombay HC where a similar matter is pending. You people are doing nothing,” the bench retorted.
A former vice-chancellor of Hampi University and a wellknown scholar who had won a Sahitya Akademi award, Kalburgi (77) was shot dead in broad daylight in Dharwad in 2015. His death came just months after Pansare was shot in Kolhapur in February 2015 and two years after Dabholkar was gunned down while out during a morning walk in Pune.
In September 2017, journalist Gauri Lankesh was gunned down in Bengaluru.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is probing the Dabholkar case, the Maharashtra Special Investigation Team (SIT) is investigating Pansare’s death while a Karnataka SIT is looking into the Lankesh murder.
The Karnataka Police is probing Kalburgi’s killing. As the probes have progressed, investigators have unearthed connections between the four murders.