Kalburgi murder: probe team brings accused to his house

The Special Investigation Team probing into the murder of Prof M M Kalburgi brought two suspects to the house of rationalist-writer on Wednesday as part of their investigation.

The SIT, along with suspects Ganesh Miskin and Praveen Prakash Chatur alias Krishnamurthy, visited Kalburgi’s house in Kalyan Nagar of Dharwad on Wednesday afternoon and conducted the spot inspection. Krishnamurthy was arrested on May 30, in Hubballi.

Sources in SIT said, they sought to know from the accused the details about the roads the assassins had used to reach Kalburgi’s house, and the motorcycle on which they had come.

The SIT recorded the distance between the spot Kalburgi was killed and the compound gate. They also recorded the distance between the gate and the spot where the motorcycle was parked. The team then surveyed the route through which the assassins had escaped.

The SIT, during the investigation, has discovered that Praveen rode the bike, while Ganesh Miskin of Hubballi (who is accused in journalist Gouri Lankesh’s murder case too) was a pillion rider, and he shot Kalburgi.

The sources said, Amol Kale, the accused in Gauri Lankesh’s murder case, had earlier hatched the plan to eliminate M M Kalburgi, and the task was assigned to Ganesh Miskin and Praveen Chatur. Both Ganesh and Praveen had fled the scene after firing at Kalburgi, and had allegedly left their motorcycle at Kittur.

The Special Investigation Team team comprising about ten officials also went to Kittur to seek more details.

The probe officials, however, barred the photojournalists from taking the photographs of their visit.

Kalburgi’s wife Umadevi, who was at the house when the SIT visited her residence, said the SIT officers neither talked to her nor revealed any information about the accused.