Kalburgi’s wife identifies assassin

Dharwad: Umadevi Kalburgi, wife of scholar M M Kalburgi, has identified the person who shot her husband dead at an identification parade held at the Dharwad Central Jail where 10 suspected persons were paraded before her. Dharwad tahsildar Prakash Kudari was also present at the parade held on Wednesday.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of CID had brought Ganesh Miskin of Hubballi to Kalburgi’s house and surrounding areas in Kalyan Nagar of Dharwad last month and gathered information from him. However, no SIT official was present during the identification parade.
Peerbasha Nazeersab, a mason who was working at the under construction apartment opposite Kalburgi’s house also identified Ganesh Miskin, a trader in Hubballi, at the parade, sources told TOI.
Umadevi identified Ganesh Miskin as the person who called out professor Kalburgi and shot him at point blank range on August 30, 2015. The parade was held thrice with all the suspects changing their dresses. Umadevi identified Miskin as the killer in each of the parade.
On May 31 this year, the SIT had also brought to Dharwad Praveen Chatur of Belagavi who had allegedly taken Miskin on a motorcycle to Kalburgi’s house on August 30, 2015, and gathered information from him about the assassination.
Training at Charmadi Ghat
According to sources in SIT, the assailants who had a mission to eliminate ‘progressive’ writers practiced firing at Charmadi Ghat region in Dakshina Kannada district between Mangaluru and Dharmasthala for about a fortnight before embarking upon the execution of the plan.
The SIT has already arrested the mastermind of the murder Amol Kale of Maharashtra. Vasudev Suryavanshi of Belagavi, Ganesh Miskin and Amit Baddi of Hubballi and Praveen Prakash Chatur alias Krishnamurthy of Belagavi are the other accused in the case.
The interrogation of the arrested had revealed that Bharat Kurne was also present near Kalburgi’s residence when the killing took place. He was waiting on another motorcycle. “Everything went according to the directions given by Amol Kale. Ganesh and Praveen fled the scene on the motorcycle to Kittur and left for Mumbai after abandoning the bike,” Bharat is said to have confessed. Kale along with Kalaskar allegedly came to Kittur to take the bike to Mumbai.
The ‘Discover’ bike used by Ganesh and Praveen to reach Kalburgi’s residence was stolen by one Vasudev Suryavanshi, an automobile mechanic and an agent of Amol Kale to facilitate the killing. While the bike used in Gauri Lankesh’s murder case was stolen from Davanagere the one used in Kalburgi’s murder was stolen from Hubballi, said officials. The owner of the bike had lodged a complaint at Hubballi Suburban police station about the theft of the bike.
“It is satisfying that the investigation into my father’s killing is being taken to a logical end. Responding to the notice issued by SIT, my mother went to Dharwad Central Jail where the identification parade was held. Since my mother had seen the killer, she identified him during the parade. I was not allowed to be at the indentification parade,” said Shrivijaya Kalburgi, son of Kalburgi.