HUBBALLI/DHARWAD: It has been almost a year since researcher and Kannada scholar Dr M M Kalburgi was shot dead by unknown assailants in Dharwad, Karnataka, but so far there has been little or no headway in the investigation.
Intellectuals allege that clubbing Kalburgi’s murder with the assassination of Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare, both rationalists from Maharashtra, was a mistake in itself.
Kalburgi was shot dead at his residence on August 30 last year in the quiet neighbourhood of Kalyan Nagar. He was the third rationalist to be murdered in a span of two years. Pansare was murdered in February the same year and Dabhokar in 2013.
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is said to have been under pressure to look into Kalburgi’s killing on the lines of the other two murders. The agency was looking into the involvement of right wing outfits. Police sources say that initially a few reports claimed that personal and property issues could have been the reason behind the murder, but the CID hardly pursued this. “What his family members and relatives claimed had a lot of grey areas which were supposed to be investigated. But the inquiry took a different course from the day one,” a source said.
The source added: “Linking the case with that of Dabholkar and Pansare was wrong. Instead of taking the case forward on the basis of evidence and leads, the CID blindly followed what the Maharashtra police had done.
“Parallels drawn between Kalburgi and the other two rationalists of Maharashtra gave the case national prominence but did not help in nabbing the culprits.”
Some people who were closely associated with Kalburgi still say that he was not a rationalist though he had strong views against superstition, idol worship and some religious practices. He was a staunch follower of the Lingayat community and had done a lot of research on this sect. His outspoken and progressive views had also irked Lingayat heads. The investigation was, however, never done on this line, they say.
Another doubt in the minds of many is whether there is something holding the government back from probing the case. Kalburgi’s family has hardly spoken in public about the pace or outcome of the probe.
According to Dharwad MP Prahlad Joshi, the state government has lost all seriousness on the issue. “One cannot solve cases by just dragging the names of organisations. The case should have been handed over to the CID or CBI in the initial stage itself, but the delay in doing so has delayed the overall probe. We will raise the issue in the Assembly and will chalk out plans for further steps to be taken.”
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