A single investigative agency should probe the brutal murders of journalist Gauri Lankesh and activists Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare and M.M. Kalburgi if there is a "common thread" running through them, the Supreme Court told the CBI on December 11.
This is the first time the Supreme Court has indicated that there may be a possibility of a common link among the four cases which had sent shockwaves across the nation and was considered in some quarters as a silencing of dissenting voices.
"Have you established or at least found some common link among the four cases?" Justices U.U. Lalit and Navin Sinha asked the CBI counsel.
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"There are four deaths here and there are two schools of thought on this. If they (the four murders) are completely unconnected, they should be investigated by the police. But if there is a common thread linking the four cases, in the fitness of things, one agency should investigate all the four," Justice Lalit addressed the CBI.
The court wanted to know the CBI's opinion as it has already filed a charge sheet in the Dabholkar case on November 22.
The court's queries to the CBI were triggered immediately after Karnataka government, represented by advocate Devdutt Kamat, submitted that its investigations into the Kalburgi murder show a link with the death of Gauri Lankesh, who was shot dead in broad daylight in front of her Bengaluru residence on September 5, 2017.
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"Karnataka says there is some link between Dabholkar and Kalburgi murders. Dabholkar case is already with you. Pansare case is still with the Maharashtra SIT... So, do you think there is now enough prima facie material to show there is a common thread?" Justice Lalit asked the CBI counsel.
A hesitant CBI sought time to respond. The court posted the case for January first week.
The hearing was based on a petition filed by Umadevi Kalburgi for a co-ordinated probe under one investigative agency in the murders of her husband, Dabholkar and Pansare.
A Kendriya Sahitya Akademi awardee and anti-superstition activist, Kalburgi, was shot dead at his Bengaluru residence on August 30, 2015.
Umadevi believes the very same shooters behind the murders of Pansare on February 16, 2015 in Kolhapur, Maharashtra and Dr. Narendra Dabholkar on August 20, 2013 in Pune were behind her husband’s murder in 2015.
Umadevi argued that the murders, which "left every right-minded person in society shell-shocked", should not go unpunished.
She had complained in the apex court that the Karnataka Police investigation into her husband's death meandered over the past three years despite assurances from the State that the “biggest manhunt” by the State C.I.D. is underway.