“You haven’t done anything, investigated nothing, you are only trying to pull out.”
A Supreme Court bench, on Monday, 26 November, came down heavily on the Karnataka Criminal Investigation Department (CID) for its lack of progress in the investigation into the murder of rationalist, Professor MM Kalburgi.
The remarks from the SC came after Kalburgi’s wife Uma Devi approached the apex court expressing her dissatisfaction with the CID investigation.
However, a little over three months ago, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the murder of activist-journalist Gauri Lankesh had given an important clue to the CID regarding the Kalburgi murder case. Amidst the criticism from the apex court, questions are being raised as to why the CID sat on these valuable inputs.
Two Key Suspects
While investigating the Gauri Lankesh murder case, the SIT arrested two men – Ganesh Miskin, 28, and Amit Ramachandra Baddi, 27 – from Hubli district in North Karnataka. Hubli is a twin city to Dharwad, where Kalburgi was murdered.
According to the SIT, in the Gauri Lankesh murder case, Miskin took the assassin, Parashuram Waghmore, to Lankesh’s house on a motorcycle on the day of the murder; while Baddi was in a van, not far from the house, waiting for the rider and killer. After the murder, Miskin and Wahgmore rode to the van parked on NICE road, in the Outer-Ring Road junction, and handed over the weapon to Baddi.
After their arrest on 22 July, during interrogation, the two men made a startling revelation: they had conducted the recce for Kalburgi’s murder in 2015.
CID Takes Custody, But Then Nothing
Realising this could be a breakthrough, the SIT communicated this information to the CID, almost three months ago.
The CID, however, waited for more than a week to take custody of these men. According to sources, the CID wanted to confirm the SIT’s inputs independently before acting.
After a brief delay, CID took these men into custody and questioned them. After 15 days, the suspects were sent back to judicial custody, and no further developments took place in the investigation.
CID sources told The Quint they wanted custody of Amol Kale, the alleged mastermind behind the murder of Gauri Lankesh, to probe the Kalburgi case further. However, before the CID could apply for custody of Kale, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) took him into their custody as part of the investigation into the murder of another rationalist, Narendra Dabholkar.
Groping in the Dark
The CID’s inability to make progress in the case, despite the tip-off, has led to a demand for the case to be handed over to the SIT. However, according to sources, the government is not in favour of this move. As several members of the SIT are officers deputed from the CID, the government is expected to ask the SIT to support the CID in the probe in a bigger way.
But as for the progress report sought by the SC in the Kalburgi murder case, the CID remains in the dark about the investigation into the first rationalist murder in the state.
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