Bengaluru: The body of an unknown man, which was buried by the Belagavi police after no one claimed it, is not that of the assassin of the writer and rationalist M.M. Kalburgi, an officer on condition of anonymity told this newspaper.
“The unclaimed, bullet-ridden body, which was found by the Belagavi police on October 18, is yet to be identified. It was a rumoured that the deceased was the killer of Dr Kalburgi,” the officer said.
The body of the man, said to be in the late 20s or early 30s, was found by villagers at Manakawadi in Khanapur district on the morning of October 18, with two bullet injuries — one on the chest and another in the stomach and they had reported the matter to the police.
Read | Body of Kalburgi’s killer found?
The Khanapura police had circulated the photograph of the deceased to identify him and later buried him after no one came forward to claim the body. It is during this time that some local people had spotted a striking resemblance between the killer’s sketch and the deceased.
The Criminal Investigation Department is investigating the sensational killing of Dr Kalburgi, who was shot dead in his house on August 30 around 8.30 am in Dharwad by an unidentified youth. He was accompanied by another young man, who was waiting for him outside Dr Kalburgi’s house on a motorcycle.
“The sketch of the assassin may have had some resemblance with the unidentified man but he is not the man the CID is looking for. Identification of an accused only on the basis of a sketch is very difficult,” the officer said on condition of anonymity. The CID has spread out its teams in Karnataka, Maharashtra and Goa in search of the assassins, who are said to be aged between mid 20s and early 30s.
