Kalburgi killing: SC slams Karnataka for 'doing nothing and just fooling around'
New Delhi, Nov 26: The Supreme Court on Monday pulled up the Karnataka government for "doing nothing and just fooling around" in the investigation of killing of noted scholar and rationalist M.M Kalburgi in 2015 at Dharwad.
The top court indicated that it may transfer the case to Bombay High Court for supervision of investigation after looking into the status report of Karnataka government.
A bench of Justices R F Nariman and Navin Sinha asked the Karnataka government to file its status report in two weeks on the investigation done so far in the case.
"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," the bench said.
Advocate Devadatt Kamat, appearing for Karnataka government said that he will have to take instructions on the time period for completing the investigation.
"You take instruction. Then we will send the matter to Bombay High Court where a similar matter is pending. You people are just doing nothing," the bench said.
77-year old Kalburgi, the former Vice-Chancellor of Hampi University and a well-known scholar and epigraphist, was shot dead in broad daylight at his residence in Kalyan Nagar in Dharwad, Karnataka, on August 30, 2015. Born in 1938, he was a Sahitya Akademi award-winning writer of old Kannada literature.
The court was hearing a plea of Uma Devi Kalburgi, the widow of the slain scholar, seeking a SIT probe into the sensational murder.
Counsel, appearing for Kalburgi said that it will be better if the case is transferred to Bombay High Court for further supervision.
On March 23, the Centre had told the apex court that the NIA, being a special agency to probe national and inter-state terrorism cases, cannot investigate the killing of M M Kalburgi.
The Centre has referred to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Act and said the instant offence did not fall under the category of 'Schedule offence' under the law and hence, the probe agency cannot investigate it.
The court had earlier asked the CBI and the governments of Maharashtra and Karnataka to file their responses in the case.
The top court had on January 10 sought the response of probe agencies NIA and CBI and the two state governments on the allegation of Uma Devi that no substantial investigation has been carried out so far in the murder case.
Kalburgi's wife, in her petition filed through advocate Krishna Kumar, has alleged that there was common link between the murder of her husband and that of intellectual activists, Narendra Achyut Dabholkar and Govindrao Pansare, who too were assassinated in August 2013 and February 2015 respectively.
Dabholkar was shot at on August 20, 2013 in Pune, while Pansare was killed in Kolhapur in Maharashtra on February 16, 2015.
She alleged the investigations in Dabholkar and Pansare murder cases were in a "sorry state" and no progress has been made in bringing the killers to book.
The petition said that in 2016, the then Karnataka Home Minister had in a statement claimed that as per the forensic analysis of cartridges recovered from the three separate crime scenes, the three murders were linked.
It alleged that one of the weapons used in the murder of Pansare was used to kill Kalburgi and therefore coordination between Maharashtra police and Karnataka police, besides the CBI and the NIA, was required.
"Although sketches of suspects were released after four days of Kalburgi's murder and statement was issued by Karnataka government that conclusive evidence of nexus of murders of all three activists was found, there has been no progress in the investigation till date," the plea has said.
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21 hours raid fetch nothing for ED, claims Karnataka Cong MLA’s son
Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka Congress MLA N A Haris' son Mohammed Haris Nalapad on Tuesday claimed that the 21 hours of search by the ED in his house and other locations did not fetch anything.
The Enforcement Directorate on Monday raided the premises of the two sons of Haris (Mohammed Haris Nalapad and Omar Farook Nalapad), Aqeeb Khan, grandson of ex-Union cabinet minister K Rahman Khan and an alleged crypto hacker named Srikrishna Ramesh alias Sriki in a crypto currency-linked money laundering case.
More than a dozen premises in the city have been covered as part of the action executed under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
"My grandfather is 89-year-old. There is not a single bad mark. My father (N A Haris) is a four-time MLA. There is not a single accusation against him. Their only intention was to target myself and my brother. As simple as that," Mohammed Nalapad, who is a former Karnataka Youth Congress president, told reporters.
According to him, the ED officials carried out raids for 21 hours.
"After 21 hours of search, they took away only two mobile phones from our house. They did not get a single paisa. The ED will testify it," the Congress leader said.
Exuding faith in the law, he said he is ready to fight the case in court.
"Me and my father have opted for politics and we are in public life. You can call me whatever you want but I have not done anything wrong," Mohammed Nalapad said.
Regarding his relationship with Sriki, he said he knew him but had no clue what he was doing.
"I have never said that either me or my brother do not know Sriki. But how will I know what he does in his house? Can his crimes be linked to us," he asked.
The money laundering case stems from some Karnataka Police FIRs and chargesheets filed in a 2017 case of hacking of national and international websites, stealing of bitcoins and sale of these 'stolen' virtual digital assets (VDA) through crypto platforms by the alleged hacker Sriki and his associates.
The Nalapad brothers and Aqeeb Khan are alleged to be the beneficiaries of the proceeds of crime generated through this alleged crypto-linked crime, the ED said.
