Kalburgi murder case: DGP to take up, supervise case personally

BENGALURU: Lack of progress into the investigation of the murder of renowned scholar Dr M.M. Kalburgi, has resulted in the head of Criminal Investigation Department (CID), DGP H.C. Kishore Chandra getting ready to personally supervise the probe.

Two weeks into the killing of the scholar, the CID has been left shamefaced as no progress has been made in the case, nor have the police been able to obtain any substantial clues with regard to the killers.

It is learnt that alarmed by the slow pace of investigations, DGP Kishore Chandra has himself taken up the responsibility of leading the probe. He will be visiting the Dharwad residence of the researcher where he was shot dead on August 30. It is said that he would talk to the family members of Dr. Kalburgi and others, whom were already questioned by the investigation team earlier. The DGP himself will be working on the investigations on Monday and Tuesday, sources said.

Even two weeks after the murder, the investigators have not been able to detect any angle that could have led to the murder. The CID team has gathered information from Dr. Kalburgi’s family members, relatives and friends to ascertain the potential reasons for the killing. But, the sleuths have not found the reason behind the killing so far.

The police had worked on several angles like property dispute, family dispute, besides probing whether Dr. Kalburgi shared enmity with anyone or his provocative statements had led to the killing. Just a few days after launching the probe, they had ruled out the property dispute angle after verifying details related to the property belonging to Dr. Kalburgi, his wife and family members.

As part of the probe, the police had also questioned a woman officer of the Kannada and Culture department after it was revealed that Dr. Kalburgi and the officer were at loggerheads over running a literary trust and it had resulted in the government withdrawing her services to the trust. Subsequently, Dr. Kalburgi had also resigned to the post as the head of the trust. Even the questioning of the woman officer was not of any help to the police.

The investigating team also questioned several people who are associated with right wing organisations as there are strong suspicions that his Kalburgi’s statements on religion might have led to the killing. Some of the right wing activists are still under the radar of the investigating team. But, the police have not been able to come to any conclusion including whether the murder was carried out by professional contract killers or not.