The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday granted bail to two persons accused of involvement in the 2015 murder of Kannada writer MM Kalburgi, PTI reported.
Kalburgi, a Kendriya Sahitya Akademi awardee and anti-superstition activist, was shot dead by two assailants at his home in Dharwad district in Karnataka on August 30, 2015. The assailants then escaped on a two-wheeler.
Justice MG Uma on Tuesday granted bail two accused persons named Vasudev Bhagwan Suryavanshi and Amit Baddi, who had been accused of stealing the vehicle.
“Apart from the theft charges, there is no prima facie evidence indicating their [Suryavanshi and Baddi’s] involvement in the murder case,” the court said, adding that the original theft case had been resolved years ago.
The court also observed that only 10 out of 138 witnesses had been examined in the trial, PTI reported. It added that the prosecution could not provide a definite timeline for when the trial would conclude.
Kalburgi’s murder in August 2015 came months after the murder of rationalist and Communist Party of India leader Govind Pansare at Maharashtra’s Kolhapur in the same year. In 2013, anti-superstition activist Narendra Dabholkar was murdered in Pune.
Investigating agencies have said these three cases as well as the killing of journalist Gauri Lankesh in 2017 are linked and Hindutva groups were behind them.
In 2019, the Special Investigation Team probing Kalburgi’s murder filed a chargesheet against six persons, which included Suryavanshi and Baddi. All six were also named accused in Lankesh’s murder case.
In December 2023, the Congress government in Karnataka had ordered the setting up of special courts to conduct the trial in the cases related to Kalburgi and Lankesh.
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