Police release sketches of suspected Kalburgi killers

The Hubballi-Dharwad police on Wednesday released the sketches of two suspects who shot dead Professor M M Kalburgi on August 30.

The sketches were prepared by the police team on the descriptions provided by the family members and a person in the neighbourhood. The team is in constant touch with Kalburgi’s family members and neighbours at Kalyan Nagar in Dharwad.

A senior state police officer said the case has been handed over to the CID and the Hubballi-Dharwad police were assisting the CID team. “The police managed to get a CCTV footage from a nearby building, which is close to the main road. However, the footage has captured only the motorcycle. The officials were still processing the available footage to get more clarity. Professor Kalburgi’s wife could only see one of the accused for a few seconds. One man from the same locality has also seen the accused, but from a distance,” the officer said.

Meanwhile, Dharwad police said there was still no clarity on the possible motive behind the attack. “We have kept all options open in the investigation. We are currently working on two angles, including a possible dispute leading to the killing and an extremist ideology,” an officer involved in the investigation told Deccan Herald.

Police sources said it was a well-planned-and-executed killing and the suspects seemed to have recceed the house and routines of Professor Kalburgi. The two accused were definitely contract killers who were trained in handling weapons.

“They could either be from Bantwal or Pune or Kolhapur in Maharashtra. A person was arrested a few months ago from Bantwal for posting threatening tweets to kill M M Kalburgi besides K S Bhagwan. The police might interrogate him to gather more leads,” the officer said.

He added that the motive for handlers of the assailants was purely ideological.
There were reports that Prof Kalburgi had differences of opinion with a head of a religious centre in Inchigeri near Sindhagi in Vijayapura district.

 A few elements associated with the religious centre are notorious and are involved in a few murders besides assigning murder contract to trained men.

One of the investigating teams was closely following the developments in Inchigeri and questioning some people, including the head of the religious centre, the officer added.
A CID team visited various places in Vijayapura district on Tuesday and Wednesday to gather more information about Prof Kalburgi’s background and land issues.

 The team visited Yargal BK and Gubbewad (his birth place) villages in Sindhagi taluk and also Tamba village.

The team interacted with Kalburgi’s relatives Bhogappa, Gundanna and Ambarish Allagundagi and collected details about his property and his share in lands.

“We were told that he had about 46 acres of land at Yargal BK village, but retained just six acres and gave away the rest to his relatives,” said a police officer.