FILE photo: Noted scholar MM Kalburgi who was shot dead at his home in Karnataka
Three days after renowned scholar MM Kalburgi was shot dead at his home in Karnataka, there have been no arrests and the police have still not started on the very basics of a murder investigation.
On Wednesday evening, the police finally released the sketches of two suspects in the case.
The police are apparently busy with other duties. Most senior officers supervising the investigation have been enlisted for managing farmers' protests in two towns over a water dispute.
Dr Kalburgi, 77, was given police protection for at least three months last year after he received death threats from unknown people, his family has said. The security cover was later removed on his request.
The professor had provoked the anger of some groups by speaking in support of writer UR Ananthamurthy when he shared that as a child he had urinated on stone figurines. Dr Kalburgi's comment that the Lingayat community that he belonged to, is not Hindu, was also condemned by these groups.
In the protests last year, effigies of Dr Kalburgi were burnt, his image was garlanded with slippers and bottles were thrown at his house. Protests were organised across the state by the Bajrang Dal and other groups that are a part of the cluster led by the BJP's ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
Mohan Ramadurga, a local BJP functionary, told NDTV that one of the protests against Dr Kalburgi was organised by his party.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Karnataka Criminal Investigation Department took over the investigation from the local police.