New Delhi, Dec 12: If there is a “common thread” among the murders of social activists Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare, journalist Gauri Lankesh and rationalist M M Kalburgi, then one agency can investigate all the four cases, according to the Supreme Court of India.
A bench of Justices U U Lalit and Navin Sinha sought response from CBI, which is already probing the murder of social activist Narendra Dabholkar, on whether it had come across any common link among all four cases so that a decision could be taken to hand over all these cases to the agency.
Karnataka police in its status report said there appeared to be an “intimate connection” between the murders of Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh.
“There are two school of thoughts. First is that all these murders are unconnected then the police can investigate them separately and secondly if prima facie it appears that there is a common thread among all cases, then in the fitness of things the investigation should be done by one single agency,” the bench said.
The court was hearing a plea of Kalburgi’s wife Umadevi Mallinath Kalburgi seeking court-monitored SIT probe in the case. Former vicechancellor of Hampi University, M M Kalburgi, was shot dead at his Bengaluru residence in August 2013.
Umadevi alleged in her petition that there was a link between the murder of her husband and that of activists Narendra Dabholkar and Govindrao Pansare. Questioning the ongoing probe by state police, she pleaded that investigation be handed over to a special team.
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