Scholar Kalburgi's Murder: No Sketches, No Questioning, Preoccupied Cops

FILE photo: Noted scholar MM Kalburgi who was shot dead at his home in Karnataka

Dharwad, Karnataka:  Three days after renowned scholar MM Kalburgi was shot dead at his home in Karnataka, there have been no arrests and the police have still not started on the very basics of a murder investigation.

Police sources have told NDTV that though Dr Kalburgi’s wife, Uma Devi had seen the shooters who arrived at their home in Dharwad on Sunday morning and asked to see “sir”, the police have not released any sketches that would help identify the suspects.

The police have also not questioned anyone from the pro-Hindu groups that had protested against Dr Kalburgi in June last year.

The police are apparently busy with other duties. Most senior officers supervising the investigation have been enlisted for managing farmers’ protests in two towns over a water dispute.

In the protests last year by members of the BJP and its affiliate Vishwa Hindu Parishad, effigies of Dr Kalburgi were burnt, his image was garlanded with slippers and bottles were thrown at his house. Similar protests were organised across the state by the Bajrang Dal and other groups that are a part of the cluster led by the BJP’s ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

Based on threats to his life, Dr Kalburgi was given police protection for at least three months but the security cover was removed on his request.

Mohan Ramadurga, a local BJP functionary, confirmed to NDTV that the march in Dharwad was organised by the BJP. He also said that the police had not questioned him or any of his colleagues on the murder.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Karnataka Criminal Investigation Department took over the investigation from the local police.

Police Commissioner PH Rane told NDTV that three teams had been set up in Karnataka and one in Maharashtra to probe the killing. The Maharashtra team is to look into the murders in 2013 and 2015 of rationalists Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare in Pune and Kolhapur. All three murders involve men in bikes who showed up in the morning, fired shots and left.