SC sees ‘common threat’ in four Maha, Karnataka murders

Noting a ‘common threat’ in the murders of socialist activists Narednra Dabhokar and Govind Pansare in Mumbai and Kolhapur respectively in Maharashtra and those of journalist Gauri Lankesh in Bengaluru and rationalist M M Kalburgi in Dharwad in Karnataka, the Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the CBI to state by January first week after the Christmas vacation why it should not probe all four cases. Former Hampi University vice-chancellor and notes scholar Kalburgi’s wife Uma Devi had moved the court alleging a link between the murders of her 77year old husband in Augut 2015, Dabholkar in August 2013 and Pansare in February 2015. A bench of Justices U U Lalit and Navin Sinha sought the response of the CBI probing Dabholkar’s assassination on the Bombay High Court’s directive after perusing all four cases from the status reports by the governments of Maharashtra and Karnataka. A suspected link between the murders of journalist Gauri Lankesh in September 2017 and Kalburbi was admitted in the status report of the Karnataka police. Asked about the status of investigation into the Pansare murder case, the Maharashtra government counsel said the case was pending before the trial court in Kolhapur. In the previous hearing on November 26, the Apx Court had pulled up the Karnataka police for “doing nothing and just fooling around” in the investigation, indicating that it may transfer the case to the Bombay High Court.