SC transfers investigation of Kalburgi murder to SIT probing Gauri Lankesh case

The Supreme Court on Tuesday transferred the probe into the killing of rationalist M M Kalburgi to the SIT investigating the murder case of journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh after Karnataka government said there were common links in the two cases.

The state Crime Investigation Department was probing Kalburgi's killing and the SIT was investigating the murder of Gauri Lankesh in September 2017 in Bengaluru.

During the hearing, the top court said the SIT probe into Kalburgi's killing will be monitored by the Dharwad bench of the Karnataka High Court.

A



bench of justices R F Nariman and Vineet Saran said if killings of Kalburgi, Lankesh and social activist Govind Pansare and rationalist Narendra Dabholkar are linked, it should be probed by one agency and monitored by one high court.

The apex court's order came on a plea by Kalburgi's wife, who had alleged that there was a common link between the murder of her husband and that of Dabholkar and Pansare, and hence the probe should be done by CBI.

The killings of all these three activists happened within a period of five years.