Supreme Court to hear plea by MM Kalburgi's wife on Feb 26

Terming it as "a very serious case", the Supreme Court on Friday fixed February 26 as the date to hear the plea seeking a special investigative team (SIT) probe into the killings of noted Kannada writer and rationalist MM Kalburi, filed by his wife Umadevi Kalburgi.

"This is a very serious case. We will hear it," the bench headed by Justice Rohinton Nariman observed asking the parties to complete their pleading before the next date of hearing.

"We are not going to adjourn. Complete your pleadings, be ready," the bench said.

Umadevi claimed in her petition that her husband was shot dead in Dharwad in Karnataka on August 30, 2015.

Stating that there was a pattern in the killings, Umadevi also sought from the apex court a coordinated probe into the shooting of her husband as well as of activists Narendra Dhabolkar and Govind Pansare.

Umadevi had alleged that shooters from the same organisation were allegedly involved in all the three murders.

Earlier, the top court had pulled up the Karnataka government for "doing nothing and just fooling around" in the investigation.

The apex court had indicated that it may transfer the case to Bombay high court for supervision of investigation after looking into the status report of Karnataka government.