After Bhagwan, Kannada University VC receives murder threat

There are people conspiring to kill her along the same lines as Kannada Scholar MM Kalburgi's murder

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Police is yet to trace the source of an audio message carrying death threats to Mallika Ghanti, Vice-Chancellor of Kannada University in Hampi.

Feeling threatened by the audio clip that she received, Mallika Ghanti, vice-chancellor of Kuvempu University in Hampi, lodged a complaint at the Bhadravati rural police station about a week ago after she received an audio clip saying that there are people conspiring against her.

Last month, she had participated in an event organised by Press Club of Bangalore on "Freedom of Expression and Media" in which speakers discussed the anti-superstition bill and how important it was for Kannada Scholar MM Kalburgi, who was murdered in August 2015, to see the bill was passed and enacted into law.

An FIR has been registered in the Bhadravati rural police station in Shivamogga district in Karnataka based on a written complaint by the Vice-Chancellor of Kuvempu University in Hampi.

In her four-sentence complaint, she said that she had received an audio clip in which a man says that there is a threat to her life and that there are people conspiring to kill her along the same lines as Kannada Scholar MM Kalburgi's murder. She has requested the police to take necessary legal action.

Ravi Chandra, Superintendent of police, Shivamogga said, “Acting on her complaint, we have registered an FIR under the section 506 (Punishment for criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code."

Police have started investigating.

"We have to get the verification of the audio clipping done by the Forensic Science Laboratory of Bengaluru. We have entrusted the investigation to a Deputy Superintendent of Police,” the SP said.