Key accused in ’15 Kalburgi case can’t be traced, SC told

NEW DELHI: Two of the main accused in the murder of rationalist M M Kalburgi have absconded and cannot be traced, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) has told the Supreme Court on Friday in its status report.

Kalburgi, a former vice-chancellor of Hampi University and well-known epigraphist, was shot dead at his residence in Kalyan Nagar in Dharwad, Karnataka, on August 30, 2015. Born in 1938, he was a Sahitya Akademi awardwinning writer.

The SIT, in its status report filed before a bench of Justices R F Nariman and S Ravindra Bhat, said that investigation has been completed and charge sheet filed in the murder case. “We have gone through the status report filed by the SIT. It says that two of the main accused have been absconding and cannot be traced. They also say that a charge sheet has been filed in the case and matter has been remitted to a Sessions Court for trial,” court said.

As the Karnataka high court is monitoring the case, nothing survives in the petition filed by Kalburgi’s wife Umadevi and disposed of her plea, it said.

Umadevi moved the apex court in 2017 for a probe by a NIA or CBI claiming that no substantial probe has been carried out so far in the murder case by the police.

She alleged that there was a common link between the murder of her husband and that of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar and social activist Govind Pansare, and hence the probe should be done by a Central agency.

On February 26 last year, the top court had transferred the probe to the SIT, already investigating the murder case of journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh after state government said there were common links in the cases.

The state’s Crime Investigation Department was earlier probing Kalburgi’s killing and a SIT was investigating the murder of Lankesh in September 2017, in Bengaluru.

NEWDELHI: Banned National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB), an insurgent group active in Assam, has signed an agreement with the government for suspension of operations, officials said on Friday.

According to the pact, the NDFB, under the leadership of its ‘president’ B Saoraigwra, will abjure violence and join in peace talks with the government. The tripartite agreement was signed by representatives of the NDFB and the central and Assam governments, the officials said. Active members of the NDFB including Saoraigwra were brought back from Myanmar on January 11. Top leaders including Saoraigwra, its ‘general secretary’, ‘commander-in-chief’ and ‘finance secretary’ were part of the group, an official said. The group carried 25 weapons more than 900 assorted ammunition and equipment with them.

AS THE K’TAKA HC IS MONITORING THE CASE, NOTHING SURVIVES IN THE PETITION FILED BY MM KALBURGI’S WIFE UMADEVI, SAYS SC