Dharwad, Sep 3 (DHNS): An anti-superstition organisation on Wednesday demanded the immediate arrest of Kannada litterateur M M Kalburgi’s killers and urged Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to take up the matter seriously and ensure that the culprits were put behind bars.

Members of Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti visited the residence of Kalburgi here and expressed their condolences to the bereaved family members.

Seeking a detailed probe into the writer’s killing, Samiti president Avinash Patil said Kalburgi’s murder was the third in the row after the killings of rationalists Govind Pansare of Kolhapur and Narendra Dhabolkar of Pune. The then Congress government in Maharashtra had miserably failed to handle Pansare’s and Dhabolkar’s murder cases and the present BJP government, too, is least bothered about conducting a proper investigation, he said.

“This should not happen in Kalburgi’s case. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah should take up the matter seriously and see that the culprits are arrested and such crimes are not repeated,” he said.

He said the modus operandi in the slaying of all the three rationalists was similar and that it was clear that those against their rationalistic views had eliminated them out of desperation as they could take them on intellectually.

The Congress government in the State should pass the Anti-Superstition Bill in honour of Kalburgi, he said.