SC mulls common probe into deaths of Dabholkar, Pansare, Kalburgi, Lankesh

The Supreme Court today expressed an inclination towards handing over the investigation in the deaths of Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare, MM Kalburgi, and Gauri Lankesh to one agency..In the petition filed by MM Kalburgi’s wife, Umadevi, the State of Karnataka informed the Court today that there appears to be a link between the deaths of Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh..The Bench of Justices UU Lalit and Navin Sinha passed over the matter for a brief period, seeking the presence of Counsel for the State of Maharashtra. It took up the case again after a short while..Justice UU Lalit quizzed the Counsel for Maharashtra, Nishant Katneshwarkar, about the status of the investigation in the deaths of Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare..The investigation in the Dabholkar murder case is being handled by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), while Pansare’s death is being investigated by the Maharashtra (Kolhapur) Police SIT. Both cases were being monitored by the Bombay High Court, the Bench was told..The Gauri Lankesh murder investigation is being carried out by the Karnataka State Police, the same agency probing Kalburgi’s case..Justice UU Lalit opined that if there exists any common link in these deaths, the same should be investigated by one single agency..“There appear to be four deaths, Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare, Gauri Lankesh, and MM Kalburgi..There are two schools of thought, one that they are completely unconnected in which case, every appropriate investigating agency should conduct the investigation. But, if there’s a common thread that runs through them, if according to investigators there’s a common thread, then it should be by same agency to investigate the deaths.”.Having said this, the Court favoured the investigation in all these cases to be done by the CBI, in case there is a common link. The CBI is probing only the Dabholkar case at the moment..The Court will next hear the matter in the first week of January.