Plea seeks SIT probe into rationalist Kalburgi's murder

New Delhi: The Supreme Court today sought the response of probe agencies NIA and CBI and the governments of Maharashtra and Karnataka on a plea seeking a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into the murder of famous author and rationalist M M Kalburgi in 2015.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud took note of the petition filed by Uma Devi Kalburgi, wife of the slain author, and sought the response of the investigative agencies and the two states within six weeks. Kalburgi’s wife, in her petition filed through Krishna Kumar, alleged that no substantial probe has been done so far in the murder case of her husband.

Kalburgi, the former Vice-Chancellor of Hampi University and a well-known scholar and epigraphist, was shot dead at his residence in Kalyan Nagar in Dharwad, Karnataka, on August 30, 2015. He was 77 years old. Kalburgi was a Sahitya Akademi award-winning writer of old Kannada literature. He was born in Yaragal village in Vijayapura district of north Karnataka in 1938.