The Supreme Court said on Tuesday, 11 December that if there is a "common thread" among the murders of social activists Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare, journalist Gauri Lankesh and rationalist M M Kalburgi, then one agency can investigate all the four cases.
A bench of Justices U U Lalit and Navin Sinha asked the CBI to inform it by January first week as to why it should not investigate all the four cases if there appears a link among all the murders.
The court, after perusing the status report of the Karnataka Police, said there appears to be a link between the murders of journalist Gauri Lankesh and rationalist M M Kalburgi.
It asked the Maharashtra government's counsel about the status of the investigation into the Pansare murder case, to which the counsel said the case was pending before the Kohlapur trial court.
The state police also told the apex court that it will file a chargesheet in the Kalburgi murder case in three months.
Noted scholar and rationalist M M Kalburgi was killed at Dharwad in 2015, Pansare, a social activist was also killed the same year. Lankesh, a journalist was killed on 5 September, 2017 in Bengaluru whereas social activist and rationalist Dabholkar was assassinated on 20 August, 2013.
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