Kalburgi Murder: SC Pulls Up Karnataka For ‘Fooling Around’; Says It May Just Transfer Case To Mumbai High Court 

On Monday (26 November), Supreme Court of India pulled up Government of Karnataka for “fooling around” in its investigation into the murder of Prof. MM Kalburgi that took place in Dharwad in 2015. The apex court later hinted that the case might be transferred to the Bombay High Court so that it may supervise the investigation and speed up the process.

The Bench, consisting of Justices RF Nariman and Navin Sinha, was quoted by Bangalore Mirror as saying, “What have you (Karnataka government) done so far? Nothing. You are just fooling around. How long will you take for completing the investigation? Tell us or we will pass orders.”

A plea was filed by Uma Devi Kalburgi asking for an SIT probe into the murder. In March, the Centre informed the SC that NIA can’t be involved in the probe since it is not a case of terrorism. Responses from CBI, the state governments of Maharashtra and Karnataka was sought by the apex court.

Kalburgi’s wife sensed a feeling that there existed a common link in the murders of her husband, Narendra Dabholkar and Govindrao Pansare. In 2016, the then Home Minister of Karnataka had said that the forensic reports revealed that the three murders were somehow linked to each other.