Kalburgi murder: time to call in CBI

Protest meetings held in parts of north Karnataka to mark the third anniversary of the murder of Prof M M Kalburgi and to register public ire at the failure of the state to bring his killers to justice should make the Siddaramaiah government seriously introspect. The chief minister was quick to issue a statement claiming that the investigation had reached its ‘final stage’ and perpetrators of the crime ‘would be nabbed soon’, but it was perhaps wishful thinking on his part, rather than a reflection of ground reality. Prof Kalburgi, a scholar of Vachana Sahitya, was shot dead at point blank range at his residence in Dharwad by two assailants who remain untraced to this day. His murder followed the killing of rationalist thinker Narendra Dhabolkar in Pune in 2013 and Communist leader Govind Pansare in Kolhapur in 2014. Police believe that the three murders were linked as these intellectuals had become targets of some right-wing organisations in the country. The surmise is based on the ballistic matching of weapons used in the three murders, but efforts to obtain conclusive proof with a forensic test on the cartridges have not yielded results.

Prof Kalburgi had authored more than 200 books and research papers and had also served as vice chancellor of Kannada University, Hampi. He had devoted his life to the study of Veerashaiva dharma in ancient scriptures and epigraphy, which culminated in a voluminous body of work. His quest for truth earned him the wrath of the Lingayat community, to which he belonged, but he was never afraid to tell it as he saw it. He courted criticism with his strong views on the powerful Veerashaiva mutts in particular and Hinduism in general, which often led to a war of words. However, none of his detractors could question his personal or intellectual integrity.

There is a view that as the CBI is inquiring into the murders of Dhabolkar and Pansare, the Kalburgi case should also have been handed over to that agency, but the Siddaramaiah government has steadfastly refused to do so. The state CID has muddled along clueless, and there is little evidence that it has sought the CBI’s help despite the fact that the murders seemed of a pattern. The CBI arrested a man called Veerendra Tawade last year in connection with Dhabolkar’s murder and is on the lookout for two of his associates, but the CID is pursuing its own futile path. Even at this late stage, it makes eminent sense for Karnataka to involve the CBI in the Kalburgi murder investigation in the interest of speedy justice.