Kalburgi murder case: Investigations hit brick wall
The investigation does not seem to have moved an inch.
Bengaluru: Two years after rationalist and noted writer M.M. Kalburgi was assassinated in cold blood on August 30 in his house in Dharwad by two unknown assailants, there has been no breakthrough in the investigation.
“We are doing our best and have used maximum resources in investigating this case. Unfortunately so far there have been no strong leads. We are hopeful though,” said Director General of Police, Criminal Investigation Department (CID), H.C. Kishore Chandra.
Meanwhile, the pressure on Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is mounting from rationalists, Prof Kalburgi’s family and family members of the other two other rationalists from Maharashtra – Prof Narendra Dabholkar and Communist leader Govind Pansare, who were allegedly killed by the same weapon and the same group of people, who had killed Prof Kalburgi.
“We met Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah last weekend and asked him to come clean on the status of investigation in Prof Kalburgi’s case. The investigation does not seem to have moved an inch. In the case of Prof Dabholkar and Comrade Pansare, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is investigating the first case, and the Special Investigation Team (SIT), which is investigating the second case, have arrested and charge-sheeted two people – Virendra Tawde and Samir Gaikwad. Samir is now out on bail,” said Prof Megha Pansare, daughter-in-law of Govind Pansare. She said that forensic reports in the three cases have confirmed that the same weapon was used in the three assassinations. “Why is the Karnataka CID not moving in the investigation is a puzzle,” she said.
Dr Hamid Dabholkar, son of Narendra Dabholkar , told this newspaper that the CBI has zeroed in on two people – Sarang Akolkar, who is an absconding accused in the October 2009 Goa blast case, and Vinay Pawar, who has been missing since 2009, as prime suspects in his father’s case. “There are strong similarities in the three cases but the CID, Karnataka has not made even a single arrest so far. Though we know that investigation in complex cases takes time, but in the case of Prof Kalburgi there has been no progress at all,” said Dr Dabholkar, who is a practising psychiatrist in Satara, Maharashtra. He said that besides some progress in the investigation, as a tribute to his father’s crusade against superstition, the Maharashtra government had passed the Maharashtra Anti-Superstition and Black Magic Act (2013), under which 400 cases have been registered so far. Last month the State Legislature went a step further and passed the Maharashtra Prohibition of People from Social Boycott (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressed) Act, 2017, under which five cases have been registered. Karnataka along with some other states had consulted the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (MANS) to frame the anti-superstition law in their states but even on this front Karnataka has not moved.
Prof Narendra Dabholkar was shot dead in Pune on August 20, 2013 by two unknown assailants, who had pumped in four bullets from a 7.65 mm country made pistol on him. Pansare was killed on February 16, 2015 in Kolhapur by two unknown bike-borne assailants, who had fired five bullets from two 7.65 mm country made pistols at him, when he was out on a morning walk with his wife. Prof Kalburgi’s murder was the last of the trilogy; of fatal attacks against rationalist thinkers in the country between August 2013 and August 2015.