Rationalist M M Kalburgi‘s murder investigation has seen two arrests going by a local Kannada newspaper / portal called Udayavani. Quoting the news :

‘According to the sources, officials from Crime Investigation Department (CID) have arrested two persons in-connection with the murder case of renowned writer, thinker Prof MM Kalburgi. The officials had questioned several suspicious in connection with the murder of professor on October 15, 2015.

The sources said that, recently, the two suspected have acknowledged that they had murdered Prof Kalburgi for an immovable property dispute. The suspect added that they don’t have any information on the ideology, writings,books, philosophy and others of the professor instead they murdered him for property. The both accused were arrested from Kalburgi of Vijayapura district, home town of Prof Kaburgi. Meanwhile, there is no any official information on the matter either from CID or the state government.’

Just after this news, however the CID refuted it saying that no arrests have been made yet in Kalburgi murder case. The state government has also been quiet adding to the confusion. Because Kalburgi was vocally against Idolatry in Hindu Dharma and had made derogatory references to Basava, a 12th-century philosopher who is revered by the Lingayat community, his murder was quickly attributed to Hindu extremists.

A lot of confusion also prevails in Narendra Dabholkar murder case, who was the president of the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (MANS), (the Committee to Eradicate superstition in Maharashtra). Triggered by his murder on 20 August 2013, the pending Anti-Superstition and Black Magic Ordinance was promulgated in the state of Maharashtra, four days later. However, much lesser known is his family trust named ‘Parivartan’, of which he himself was secretary and his wife Shaila Dabholkar is president. Since Dabholkar was a known atheist and explicitly criticized Hindu saints calling then ‘Godmen’ and various traditional methods like Vaastu shastra, his murder was also quickly attributed to Hindu organizations. The then Chief Minister, Pruthviraj Chavan endorsed this fact and directed the police to pursue the investigation accordingly.

Quoting this article on alleged scam by Dabholkar trust Parivartan :

‘…why thorough investigation is not carried out in the case despite providing the Government, who is taking help of planchette to find out the culprits, with several proofs regarding financial scams of ANiS and their connections with Naxalites ? A Swiss organisation, ‘SWISSAID’ publishes the map of Bharat, in which Kashmir is shown as a part of Pakistan. The same trust provides assistance of crores of rupees to “Parivartan’ (Nay ‘Family trust of family members of Dabholkar) under the pretext of developing ‘Organic farming’. The accounts of the trust after the year 2010 are not submitted by Dr. Hamid Dabholkar, son of Dr. Narendra Dabholkar to the Charity Commissioner. Since there is a strong possibility that the said foreign funds of trust are being utilised for anti-Hindu activities, Hindu Janajagruti Samiiti demanded a thorough inquiry into the above affair..

Year 2009-10 Rs. 3,00,372 received from SWISSAID and other foreign funds 19.11.795. Total donations and grants – Rs. 51,84,690 Year 2010-11 Rs. 10,44,000 received from SWISSAID and other foreign funds 40,43,627. Total donations and grants – Rs. 1,15,19,409

All the funds received from overseas are up to the year 2010. The documents after the year 2010 have not been submitted by Dabholkar family to the Charity Commissioner. The amount received after 2010 may be much larger than shown above.

We had also submitted some evidence of important incidents, documents of financial scams to the Police in connection with the killing of Dr. Dabholkar; the same were also submitted later to C.B.I. However, the Police and the C.B.I. have not made any use, whatsoever, of the evidence provided by devout Hindus….

Dabholkar had submitted fake documents to the Government. This was exposed by devout Hindus. Dabholkar has infringed Acts like F.C.R.A., which is punishable with a jail term of 7 years. Even trustees would have found themselves liable for the punishment…’

CBI arrested Virendra Tawde, a Sanatan Sanstha Seeker, as an accused for Dabholkar murder in June 2016. However, Sanatan Sanstha was up in arms against the arrest and Tawde’s counsels had claimed that he and Pansare’s murder accused were tortured and manhandled in police custody.

Earlier too, seekers of Sanatan Sanstha were declared innocent after being in prison for 4 years in the Madgaon blast case. The accused were all freed because the investigation didn’t lead to any proofs. Interestingly, both Sanatan Sanstha and Narendra Dabholkar’s son are alleging delay in investigation, meanwhile Virendra Tawde in custody has filed application seeking probe documents.

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