NIA can’t take up probe into Kalburgi murder, Centre tells Supreme Court

Kalburgi, 77, was shot dead in broad daylight at his residence at Kalyan Nagar in Dharwad, Karnataka, on August 30, 2015.

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MM Kalburgi, who was shot dead at his residence in Dharwad by an unidentified gunman (File photo)

The Centre told the Supreme Court Friday that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) could not take up the probe into the murder of Kannada scholar M M Kalburgi as it did not fall in the category of scheduled offences that could be pursued by the agency.

Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand conveyed this to a bench, comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, which was hearing a plea by the scholar’s wife Uma Devi Kalburgi, seeking an SIT probe into the murder.

The bench directed that the matter be listed in the first week of July and asked the CBI and the state governments of Maharashtra and Karnataka to file their responses in the meantime. Kalburgi, 77, was shot dead in broad daylight at his residence at Kalyan Nagar in Dharwad, Karnataka, on August 30, 2015.

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Uma Devi had approached the court claiming there was a common link between the murder of her husband and that of activists Narendra Achyut Dabholkar and Govindrao Pansare. Dabholkar was killed in August 2013 and Pansare in February 2015.

She said a statement made by Karnataka Home Minister in 2016 indicated links between the three murders.
Uma Devi claimed that probe in the Dabholkar and Pansare murder cases were in a “sorry state” and no progress has been made in bringing the killers to book.

On January 10, the apex court sought the response of NIA and CBI and the two state governments on Uma Devi’s allegation that no substantial investigation was carried out in the Kalburgi case.

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